Spartan
by Fred-104
Summary: Series from the point of view of Frederic-104. Starts in Spartan training and goes on from there. Warning: There will be some Spartan pairings. I do not own Halo. Rated T for violence. And also because K sounds stupid.
1. Pilot

Frederic-104 stood near the base of the mountain, trying to see through the trees to the top. James walked up next to him.

"So Fred, what's the plan?" Fred glanced at the other Spartan and thought for a moment, then said,

"Well, I guess they're not giving us any choice but to go straight up after them. Get Will and Anton, tell them to scout ahead for any traps John or Kurt might've set for us. I'll get everybody else. We're heading out in ten."  
>James nodded and sprinted off into the forest surrounding them, and Fred collected the others:Isaac, Cal, Li, and Grace-five of their team had been taken out in an ambush set by John earlier in the training session- and they all gathered at the base of the hill.<p>

"If they see anything one of them will stay there and the other will search for a way around." James said to Fred as they moved up the mountainside. Fred nodded and continued walking, slowly scanning every inch of the terrain ahead of him.

Suddenly, Anton and Will came careening down the forest yelling out to get back, firing the TTR rounds from the S6 handguns each candidate had been equipped with for the training round blindly behind them. Fred ordered everyone to retreat. He nodded to James and they both went to either side of the retreating Spartans and climbed high into trees, covering themselves on the way up. They waited for a few moments, then saw a few of the other candidates-Fred recognized them as members of Kurt's team- following close behind them, armed with captured MA5Bs loaded with TTR rounds. _Dang,_ he thought, _they got one of the care packages._ James looked at him and Fred held up three fingers, two, one, then closed his hand into a fist as the other Spartans nearly ran right between them.

Fred and James leaped from the trees and landed in front of the opposing candidates. Fred grabbed the barrel of the nearest Spartan-Joshua- and smashed the gun back, hitting Joshua in the gut with his weapon. Joshua let go of the gun and doubled over, and Fred put a TTR round into his side, slapping on the sticky green "kill" flag. Alice jumped at Fred, swinging a fist that connected with his jaw. Fred ducked her kick and grabbed her leg, pulling her down to her knees and putting a stun round into her leg with his S6. He punched at Joseph, which he ducked, then sent a hard kick at his abdomen, which Joseph nimbly avoided with a spin and jump backwards. Fred took his captured MA5B and swung the butt of the rifle at Joseph, connecting with his shoulder, spinning him around until Fred flipped the gun around and fired a third round into his chest, slapping a final flag onto his back. He looked up, watching for another enemy, but merely saw James slapping one of his flags onto Malcom's chest, then-as an afterthought- he pulled the flag off Malcom's chest and put it on his face. He sent James down to get the others, then set about policing the weapons of each of the enemies he had just faced off against.

He bent down to pick up a magazine from Joshua, who glared at him angrily, unable to do anything but that, and Fred gave him a less than gentle pat on the face and smirked at him. He stood quickly, and the TTR round flew right where his face had previously been. He dove backwards, falling to the ground and three more of the projectiles flew towards his last position. He scrambled backwards and took cover behind a large tree, pulling himself in so he was completely behind the tree. He heard the dull thuds as several rounds hit the tree, then he popped out and fired in the general direction he heard the shots coming from. He ducked back behind as someone shot from a different direction, nearly hitting him in the head. He saw James leading the rest of their team up the hill and tried to yell out to him to stop, but before he could James was hit six times in the chest from a fully automatic rifle. James's hands flew to his chest flew and he fell backwards, Grace catching him and the team scattered among the trees. Fred saw two recruits chasing Anton and fired, one of them falling instantly and the other being brought down by Anton. He adjusted behind the tree to see the enemy around him, then pulled back quickly to avoid being hit by two TTR projectiles speeding toward him.

He looked back at his team, scattered among the trees and being hunted by superior firepower, then he remembered the stack of MA5Bs and S6's he'd taken from the six that he and James had faced. He knew he had to get to those weapons, though they were far off, and get them to his Spartans. He steeled himself, then leaped from his tree cover and rolled through the trees. He heard the TTR hitting things all around him, but through some force of nature-or luck-they did not hit him. He stood to a crouch, running through the forest until he was near the clearing he and James had fought the other half of the team they were now pitted against. He dove low-grabbing the neat stack of weapons and magazines he had made earlier-and ended up on the other side of the clearing.

Will and Isaac crouched near, returning fire with their pistols into a bush ahead of him. He tossed each of them an MA5B and three magazines, then through hand symbols asked _Where are the others?_ Isaac answered with three fingers sliding over an open palm. _Unknown._ Fred bit his lip, then nodded. He looked through the forest, trying to see any of his squad, until he saw Grace and Li trying to revive a wounded James. Fred made a chopping motion with his right hand over his left, then made a half circle with his arm _Cover me._ Will nodded and released the bolt on his newly acquired MA5B assault rifle, tensing for the attack. Fred held up three fingers, dropped one, two, then held a closed fist. The two Spartan trainees stood at the same time, Fred sprinting toward Grace and Li, Isaac and Will firing into the surrounding trees, causing the enemy Spartans to drop down and cover.

Fred made it to Grace and Li and handed them each an assault rifle and three clips, then checked James. He would spasm occasionally, but the concoction of chemicals in the TTR bullets had already done its work, and James was officially ?ead He shook his head at Grace and Li, and they nodded, knowing what Fred meant. Fred looked for Anton and Cal, then noticed Anton appearing out of the forest, holding two MA5Bs at the hip and firing them simultaneously, laughing crazily. He scanned the woods for Cal, but couldn't find her. He pointed two fingers at his eyes, then made a sweeping motion with his hand, telling them to keep their eyes open for anything. He still had two assault rifles and six magazines, so he gave each of the Spartans beside him an extra clip and handed Grace one of the extra rifles. He ejected the magazine from the last rifle, then stood and threw it as hard as he could down the mountain. _If we can't have it, they sure as heck won't._ He thought to himself. Li picked up James and slung him over his shoulder, then gave Fred a thumbs up. Fred and Grace went ahead, covering Li as he carried James. Fred looked through the trees and saw someone, though he couldn't tell who exactly, he knew it was no one on his team. He fired at the silhouette and knew he hit, because the body fell to the ground and twitched. They made it to Isaac and Will, who Anton had also reached, and ordered everyone to report their kill counts. Li put James down and said he hadn't shot anyone, Anton reported one, Isaac and Will had one each, and Grace didn't have any. Fred scanned the trees for enemies, then noticed one person fleeing from his battle group.

He ordered Grace and Li after them-though they both returned minutes later with no success- then told everyone to start looking for Cal. After a few minutes Will shouted out that he'd found her, and when Fred made it to her he saw her covered in the green paint of Kurt's team. Fred quickly tallied all of the kills the Spartan recruits had. There were seven "dead" from his team, ten from Kurt's team, but he didn't know the status of John's team. They hadn't encountered them since the ambush that had taken out more than a third of his team, but he tallied the two they'd managed to get before retreating into the equation. That came out with 19 of 35 Spartans. Kurt had probably taken out more of John's team, but Fred wasn't about to count on that. Maybe Kurt had decided to attack Fred's team first so he wouldn't have to deal with them while tracking John. Sent Grace and Anton out to scout, wanting to know when the next assault would come. In ten minutes they had returned with nothing and Fred decided to hunt after the two survivors of Kurt's team.

They followed their trail for nearly an hour before Anton yelled out that there a warning. Fred's team dropped into a cover position, making a full circle, and watched the trees until Grace heard a crack in the trees above. She spun upward and fired at full automatic, TTR painting the trees above, as bullets rained down on them. Fred looked up and saw Jerome jumping from one tree to the other-and shot him mid way between the two. Jerome came crashing down to the forest floor, along with Sheila and Mike. Anton stood, firing into the trees above wildly, and cried out as a blue splash of paint appeared on his lower calf. He fell to the ground, continuously firing, until three more rounds hit him in rapid succession on the chest and right arm.

"Pull back! Everybody pull back!" Fred shouted to his team, but none of them could move without being killed immediately. Isaac fired upwards and Victor and Maria tumbled to the ground with red paint covering them. "Everyone, defensive retreat! Go, go, go!" Fred yelled to his team, and they ran. Grace lingered for a moment, then cried out when she was hit in the back. She struggled to crawl over the ground-Li and Isaac stooped to pick her up-but Li was brought down by splashes of blue traveling up his leg to the back of his neck, then a round got Grace in the head. Isaac dropped Grace's arm and ran, knowing she was dead and their was nothing he could do for her, and Fred and Will turned and fired at the enemy targeting him. They finally turned-tale and ran when Isaac reached them, and put as much distance between Blue Team and themselves as they could without giving out.

That night, Will stayed up for first shift and as Fred drifted off into a half-sleep, he thought to himself, _Great, down to three members and Blue is after us. This is gonna be heck of a training session._


	2. I'm not good with chapter names

Will walked over to Fred during the dark night, woke him and told him it was his turn on watch.

Fred sat down by the weapons of his teammates and watched through the black, searching for any sign of movement towards his team.

He looked out and noticed a flash of white and nearly fired, but he quickly realized it was merely a rabbit and lowered the barrel of his MA5B.

He stood and walked around his two soldiers for a moment, then dropped to a knee and threw his rifle up as he heard a crack in the trees surrounding him. He covered the area with a sweep of his rifle, then scanned around for a moment, still waiting for someone to appear out of the dark.

He stood again and walked back to where the remainder of his team had been sleeping, but realized that Will, Isaac, and the assault rifles were gone.

He dropped down again, scanning for his team or any enemy contacts, when a small twig fell to the ground behind him and he twisted until he was aiming upward, where he saw Isaac motioning for him to climb up the tree.

As soon as he was up with Isaac, he noticed a group of trainees moving toward their camp.

He looked at the whole group, seeing Naomi, Keiichi, Kirk, John, and Kelly.

_Dangit._ He thought angrily. He motioned to Isaac with an open palm and his index finger pointing out _Where's Will?_ Isaac pointed up and when Fred looked Will was perched in a higher branch, covering the enemy team with his rifle.

Fred began to think of a plan to take out the emerging enemy when a blue splash of paint erupted next to him.

He jumped up and fired down below him, nearly hitting Naomi, but she dodged out of his hail just in time. The rest of John's team opened fire, paint scattering all around in the trees near him, and he made a quick motion coming from his leg and pointing out. Isaac nodded and prepared to jump to a tree farther away from their enemies when Will shouted,

"They're coming up from behind!" Fred looked back behind him and saw Keiichi and Kirk jump out at him from behind.

He tried to bring his rifle to bear, but Kirk's open handed slap knocked the barrel off-target and he swung his fist, which connected with Fred's jaw.

Fred yelled,

"Will, take 'em out!" but no red paint came near the approaching threat. Isaac jumped in front of Fred and punched Keiichi in the chest and kicked him in the leg.

Fred recovered from Kirk's strong hit just in time to duck under his next punch and tackle Kirk. He punched Kirk in the gut, which caused him to let out a large breath of air involuntarily.

Keiichi came out of nowhere and landed on Fred's back, trying to pull him off of his teammate, though Isaac quickly grabbed the trainee by the collar of his uniform and hauled him off of Fred, then threw him roughly against the thick tree trunk. Keiichi lunged for Isaac, but before he reached him, Isaac had his S6 out and put two rounds into the young man's chest.

Fred punched Kirk in the jaw and then pulled out his own sidearm and dispatched the second trainee with a quick shot in the gut. He looked up at Will, but saw him spread out over the tree branch with several shots of blue covering his legs and back, his rifle dangling from his motionless fingers and Naomi placing a kill flag on his chest. Fred fired into her shoulder and it was almost an accident when he shot her in the neck.

Almost.

Her stiff body fell to the floor of the tree branches.

Fred grabbed the rifle and put flags on both Kirk and Naomi while Isaac took care of Keiichi, and then they prepared to try to take their previously-planned escape route.

"Where are you going Fred? Afraid of an honest fight? Coward."

Fred bristled at John's comments, and he slowly turned back to see the two enemy units standing below and somewhat behind he and Isaac. He looked at Isaac and motioned for him to go on without him by touching his elbow with one finger and then pointing to his ear, but Isaac shook his head. He was planning on fighting it out with the last of Blue team as well.

Fred slung the MA5B rifle over his back and slid down the tree, quickly followed by Isaac. John immediately opened fire, and Fred ducked under the horizontal line of blue and returned with shots of his own. John flipped behind a tree for cover against Fred's assault.

Kelly ran forward, and for a moment Fred had a clear shot at her. He started to tighten his finger, but couldn't bring it all the way. He noticed the gracefulness of her running, and for some reason couldn't bring himself to shoot.

_I'll take care of her later._ He told himself. He almost believed it, too.

Almost.

Isaac was suddenly behind him, saying,

"I'll try to take Kelly out, you get John." Fred nodded and ran from tree to tree, growing ever closer to John, when the team leader in question jumped from a concealed place in a tree. He knocked Fred's gun out of his hands and prepared to finish the Spartan, but Fred shot his left elbow back and connected with John's shoulder, causing him to lose grip on his rifle for a few seconds.

In those seconds, Fred grabbed John's other wrist and twisted it until he dropped his weapon, then kicked John in the chest and came to his feet.

John also jumped into a standing position, and the two circled each other, weighing their opponent, for a few moments with their fists up.

Fred shot forward and punched John in the nose, but the trainee moved his head back with Fred's punch, and it took out most of the force of his swing, but his nose still came away bleeding. John kicked Fred, and it connected with his leg, which brought Fred down to his knee, and John stepped in closer and delivered a heavy punch to the back of his head.

Fred was nearly overcome with pain, but instead he spun around and elbowed John in the gut, then spun his leg around and brought the trainee down to the ground-landing flat on his face. John was already going to get back up, but Fred threw himself down and held him down. He pulled out his S6, but John spun back over and threw Fred out away from himself.

Then both Spartans were covered in rounds of green paint.

Kurt stepped out of the trees and laughed at the two Spartans he'd "killed". Too bad they were so focused on killing each other, one of them might have made it otherwise. He slapped on a green kill flag on each of them, then grinned again.

Until a mixture of both red and blue paint covered him from head to toe.

He briefly saw Isaac and Kelly standing next to each other, rifles leveled at Kurt.

Then they switched their aims and simultaneously fired.

No one won that certain training match.

**_Author's Note: Okay, it was kinda weird...I dunno. I could have had a real winner, but didn't really feel like it. Tell me what you think in a review please, they are very importan to me._**


	3. Workout

Chief Mendez was in the middle of screaming at the team leaders -Fred, John and Kurt- about their failures to determine a winner from the session they had just returned from.

"You think you're Spartans!" He screamed at them, "What the heck happened out there? No Spartan could have ended a training match with a tie! You all failed as leaders of your respective teams, no one came out on top, you weren't even the last ones to survive!" He walked up and down the line the trio of trainees made, occasionally shooting spittle onto their faces. He turned to John and jabbed out an accusatory finger. "You two, letting your little cat fight distract you enough that you didn't even notice Kurt right behind you!" Kurt's frozen facial features lightened slightly, almost betraying buried laughter at the memory of taking out his fellow candidates, but they froze again as Mendez rounded on him. "And you! How did you not hear, see, anything, 87 and 39's comin' up on you? We've trained you brats better than this but all we get out of it is some three-way loss? Get out of my sight, all of you!"

The Spartans snapped a quick salute and shouted a simultaneous "Yes Sir!" and left the room.

On their way out, Fred noticed Isaac and Kelly standing outside the room and about to go in. Isaac said, "Any tips?" Kurt laughed and responded,

"Hope to whatever all controlling entity is out there that you didn't make any mistakes in the last six years." Isaac paled somewhat, and then Mendez screamed,

"87! 39! Get in here now!" Kelly drew invisible X's across her eyes with her finger. _We're dead._ And with that they entered Mendez's office and the three other Spartans left them to their fate.

They shared barracks, so they all took the same route back to their room and that took them past the gym. As they walked past the open door, Fred said,

"Hey Kurt, I never got the chance to really fight you. Whad'ya say we do a little fist fighting before Mendez gets rid of all our down time?" Kurt agreed with a silent nod, and the three entered the spacious room, John's excuse being that he wanted to fight the winner.

As Kurt and Fred walked to the warm up arena that was fenced off from the rest of the gym, Fred jumped through the net and with a somersault came to his feet.

Kurt also entered and the two Spartans began pacing a slow circle around each other, each sizing the other up, until Fred's foot slipped a fraction of an inch in a pool of blood left by the previous occupants of the arena and his guard fell somewhat. Kurt leaped forward, swinging his left arm around in a fast arc that Fred ducked, but Kurt's previously placed right-handed uppercut caught him in the jaw and sent him stumbling backwards into the net.

Fred crouched and stepped forward and brought a hook around that ended when it collided with Kurt's abdomen, which nearly bent him over. Kurt reacted quickly and spun his leg around which landed on Fred's thigh and brought him down to his knees.

Kurt spun around behind him and prepared to deliver a blow to the back of his dead as John had done. Anger suddenly flood through him at the memory of the mistake he'd made while fighting John and with the anger came an uncommon, cold resolve and perspective to the battle he rarely experienced-he would not be defeated again. Fred dropped down on his hands and Kurt's momentum sent him stagering a step forward and Fred used that second to spin on his hands and bring his legs out from behind him and to cut Kurt's legs out from under him, then he roled to his feet.

Kurt tried to kick at him, but Fred stepped around the lashing foot and and brought his foot down on Kurt's sternum, holding him down. Kurt tried to grab Fred's leg and twist it, but Fred stepped down harder and cut off Kurt's air supply. He held the trainee in that manner for a few minutes, then when the door opened and Kelly and Isaac stepped into the gym he leaned down and said,

"Kurt, you give up?" The red faced Spartan tried not to give in, but his lack of air eventually made it impossible for him to continue and he quickly nodded. Fred lifted his foot immediately and helped Kurt up, giving him a pat on the back as his icy resolve lifted and he returned to his normal self. "Sorry about that Kurt, don't know what happened." Kurt grinned and said "Sorry? Heck, Fred. That was harder than any other time we've gone at it. I'm sorry for makin' it so easy for you. It won't happen again." Isaac and Kelly walked up and joined the group as Fred and Kurt stepped down from the mat.

"I'm glad it was you and not me up there, Kurt. Fred would've killed me." Isaac smiled and jokingly punched Fred in the shoulder. "But, uh, hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Mendez wants you three back in his office. I guess you're not done."

All three Spartans immediately stiffened and then nodded, moving out of the gym. As they stepped out, Fred glanced back and drew an X of his eyes, and Isaac and Kelly laughed as they could hear Mendez start yelling from his office at the end of the hall.

_**Author's Note: ****Okay, so I haven't updated in a while...sorry, but I just got Inheritance and I couldn't put it down. It's really short, but I'm kind of in a block right now on all my stories. Anyway, here it is. Tell me if it sucks and I'll get rid of it and start Chapter 3 again. Not really sure how I did on this one, so give me any constructive criticism you might have. As always, please review.**_


	4. Sort of Paintball

_**Author's Note: This fic was inspired by realizing I needed to update Spartan and watching the Modern Warfare episode of Community. So, I came up with this.**_

"Spartans, you will all be given an S6 handgun and several magazines of TTR paint. It will be a free-for-all battle to the last man standing. You may go about it any way you see fit, but only one man can be left 'alive'. Go." Mendez stepped back and the Spartans each grabbed their weapons and ran into the forest.

Fred ducked under a fallen tree after running about three hundred yards and hunkered down. He noticed Isaac nearby and raised his weapon, but Isaac spun around and held his hands in the air.

"We'll have a better chance of making it if we team up." He said.

Fred considered for a moment, then nodded.

"We need to cover at least fifty yards around us, then we start to move out."

They thoroughly checked the surrounding area and then moved farther into the forest. Kirk ran forward, firing two shots and aiming for each of their chests, but Fred ducked to the side and Isaac brought his weapon up in time to fire on Kirk.

Kirk fell to the ground with two shots on his shoulder and chest.

"Are you kidding? How the heck did you guys get me again? You have to be joking." Kirk continued to speak to himself angrily while Isaac took his extra magazines and they continued walking.

Fred noticed Will ducking and weaving through the trees toward them, Mike on his trail and firing wildly at him. Fred ran toward them, leaped against a tree and redirected, firing twice into one of Mike's knees and then another time in the gut. He held his gun to Will, then said,

"You've got two choices. Join us or have me let Isaac shoot you for letting down your guard enough that Alice got you in that last round," Fred smiled, hoping to look somewhat intimidating, "I suggest you pick the first choice." Will nodded and silently began to cover their rear flank while Fred took Mike's magazines and adjusted his fallen friend in a very awkward way. "Next time you probably shouldn't give me such an easy kill." Then he smiled a very cocky grin and laughed.

The three Spartans walked through the forest together, watching each other's backs until they found two of the other Spartans -covered in paint. "Down!" Fred yelled just as paint shots erupted from the trees surrounding them. Fred ducked a line and rolled forward, his gun ending in someone's face, while two barrels likewise pointed at him. He glanced to the side and saw that Will and Isaac were in similar positions, two weapons pointed at them while they each had one trained on their enemies.

Standing in front of Will was Vinh, a fierce grin on her face. In front of Isaac was Alice, and Kelly stood before Fred.

"Well, ladies. Look what we have here. You boys get lost or something?" She said in a mocking tone.

"We were just coming around to say hi. I knew how much you missed me." Fred gave another cocky grin.

"I think we ought to kill them. Do either of you disagree?" Kelly looked over at Alice and Vinh, and Fred swung in and grabbed her wrists. He spun her around so she was between the other two and him, then he held his gun to her temple.

"Let them go before I take her out." He said, his voice cold and calculating. Suddenly Kelly twisted in his grip and somehow he ended up on the ground with one of Kelly's knees on his neck holding his head down and both of her guns aiming at his head.

Fred let out an exasperated sigh as Kelly said,

"What was that about taking me out? I kinda missed what you said over the sound of you falling down." The way she said he could tell she was giving off one of her smiles and realized he was better off going against an entire marine company than being stuck in the position he was currently in. "Maybe something along the lines of, 'Boy did I screw up'."

"You may think that you have the upper hand, but I have three others holding back behind us. Even if you 'kill' us, they'll finish you off."

"You never were the best at lying, Fred." Alice said almost as soon as he finished. "Your best bet is to try to give us your undying loyalty and join us until we decide it's in our best interest to kill you."

"I could easily throw Kelly off my neck and kill you all if I really wanted to." Fred said casually.

Kelly increased the pressure on his neck and pushed her gun harder into Fred's temple.

"What do you two think?" He said quietly due to the lack of air, though still trying to sound like the situation was under his control. He glanced up and saw that both Isaac and Will were being held in somewhat similar positions to what he had been holding Kelly in.

"I think that it's a pretty good idea." Isaac got out and sent a weak smile toward Alice.

Fred sighed again, "Alright, I guess we'll let you join us." Kelly slowly eased off of Fred's neck but kept her guns trained on him. Fred stood and rubbed his neck where Kelly had been kneeling, but stopped when he noticed her smile. Fred realized that a fish must see a close relative of that smile right before it gets eaten whole by a shark.

He'd still rather be facing that marine company on his own than be in the position he was.

_**Author's Note: My chapters are getting progressively shorter! I don't mean to, really. Anyway, I realized that Fred and Kelly were being really flat and had next to no personality the way I was writing them, so I decided to try this out. Like it, dislike it? Tell me in a review.**_


	5. Interrogation

Fred led the way through the trees while the rest of the group followed a few dozen feet behind him. Even though he was intently scanning the forest for any possible enemy, he could sense that one of the three girls behind him always had at least one weapon trained on him.

He heard a few crackling branches slightly to the left of the group and held up his closed left fist.

_Hold here._

He stepped forward silently, pistol aimed where he could hear whoever it was walking. It sounded like someone trying to be quiet -it certainly wasn't another Spartan trainee though. He walked a little farther until he could hear the faint click of an in-helmet com conversation. He stood behind a tree and slowly looked over the side of the tree and saw two marines with S6's trying to walk quietly. They must have been rookies because one looked at his feet as he walked and the other talked so much that the clicking of his mic was nearly a constant.

Fred slowly turned so that he could bring his pistol up. He dropped the red bead onto the loud-mouthed man's chest. He waited until the two walked a little closer, to try and determine if they were merely scouts from a larger party, then pulled the trigger twice.

The marine fell to the ground and his friend panicked and pulled his gun up, flipping around and waving the barrel all over the place.

Fred jumped forward and ducked under a wild shot the scattered marine sent in his vague direction, then stepped up to the man and grabbed his wrist. He began to squeeze the man's wrist and could feel a few pops under his grip and the man dropped his gun. Fred spoke low and quiet, putting as much venom into his voice as he could muster, and said,

"If you signal your squad, I'll kill you. If you try to scream, I'll kill you. Your best chance for survival is to shut up and stay still. Do you understand?"

The young marine was quaking, but he nodded.

"I'm going to ask you a few questions now. If you refuse to respond, I will kill you. Understand?" Another nod from the frightened soldier. "Why are you here? What is your mission?"

"Nothing important. My company and I are just here to mess up some trainees in an exercize." He stammered several once through the statement, but otherwise kept his voice under control.

"Good. Where is the rest of your company?" The marine stiffened at Fred's second question.

"No disrespect intended, but I'm a marine. We don't sell out our own to the likes of _you._" Fred's dislike of the marine's weakness lessened substantially.

_At least the guy has enough backbone to defend his own._

Fred decided to mess with the marine and see how devoted he was to the UNSC.

"Last question. What division were the trainees you were messing with?" Again the marine stiffened.

"That's classified."

"I'll ask you one more time. If you don't answer my question this time, I will kill you. What division did your orders tell you to distract?"

"You request a classified answer. I am only at liberty to give you one more piece of information."

"Spit it out." Fred slipped more malice and anger into the simple sentence. He was starting to enjoy himself, almost having fun interrogating the marine. He would have smiled, but he needed to keep himself collected and ready for whatever counterstrike the marine might send.

"Chris Parker. Service number 238872-9879-9879. Marine Corps. C.P." The marine closed his eyes and held his chin out, ready to die, when Fred knocked off the man's helmet and hit him in the temple, knocking the marine unconscious. He made his way to the rest of the group, who was waiting impatiently, and told them the important part of his conversation with the marine.

"Great, Mendez gives us a marine company to fight and Fred can't stop himself from having a conversation with every marine he comes in contact with. This really sucks." Kelly angrily ranted.

"You've just been in a disagreeable mood this entire time. What happened, Kelly? Did you forget how to enjoy yourself once in a while?" Fred grinned as Kelly rounded on him in anger.

"Oh, I'm not sure it's the best idea to hit him right now. You'd be playing right into his plan." Isaac covered for Fred, and Fred nodded with a stupid-looking acknowledging expression on his face.

Kelly took a step forward and hit Fred in the jaw. He spun to the side in recoil with her hit and rubbed his jaw.

"Okay, you're right. I deserved that." Kelly nodded and took a step away from Fred and punched Isaac. Then she punched Will.

"Just for good measure." She gave another of her shark smiles.

_**Author's Note: Okay, this is the last chapter with a bunch of boring talking for a while. Next chapter will involve a firefight between Spartans and marines, and there will be next to no talking. I would be more encouraged to get on that next chapter if you would review...anyone? Anyone? Tell me whether you like or hate my new personalities for Fred and Kelly please. Oh my gosh! My chapters are getting so short! It would really help if you would review...**_


	6. Alliance

Fred ran forward, took cover behind a tree and scanned the trees ahead of him. After a moment's consideration he waved Vinh forward from behind him, and she repeated the process a hundred or so yards ahead. Then Isaac ran forward, then Alice, Will and Kelly.

They'd been implementing the leap-frog formation since Fred had found that first marine patrol. Along the way they'd seen two more patrols and taken each out quickly, but they also found six fallen marines around Douglas and Malcolm.

Kelly waved him forward and he ran again, then waved Vinh forward. They continued until Will held up his fist and pointed to his eyes and made a fist and hit it on his outstretch hand.

_Incoming._

Fred and Isaac moved up to near Will's position and knelt on one knee, covering the area before them. Isaac tapped Fred on the shoulder and pointed to his left, showing Fred two Spartans -Malcolm and Arthur- slowly moving out through the trees. Kelly stood and ran toward them, waiting to get in range, before she saw the marines standing behind the Spartans with their weapons trained on them.

There were twenty marines, sixteen pointing their guns at the Spartans-eight guns to each Spartan. The last two were covering their rear guard.

Fred noticed that instead of S6 handguns like the Spartans were using, each marine had an MA5B in their hands.

Will looked to them and motioned with his hands, saying,

_Should we attack?_

Fred looked forward at Kelly and nodded, then crouched low and began to creep forward. He stood behind a tree and aimed at the marines. Isaac and Will were soon near him, Kelly, Alice and Vinh farther out.

Fred nodded and they slowly stepped forward. The marines and Spartans passed the six trainees and they opened fire.

The rear guard fell first, not knowing what hit them. After that four more marines fell, then the sergeant began barking orders.

"Shoot the hostages! Take cover behind the tree line, Hodges get moving!" Isaac and Will shot twice, taking out four more marines, and Fred jumped forward.

He hit one marine across the chest, spinning him backward and into another, then shot them both point-blank.

Arthur spun around on the two marines still holding their weapons on him and launched himself between them. The two men fell to the ground on either side of him and Alice shot them both on the ground.

The female sergeant jumped forward and sprayed wildly with her MA5B, sending a wide arc of yellow TTR rounds scything through the air. The Spartans ducked down under her fire and she rallied her remaining troops into a defensive position.

Two Spartans dropped down into the middle of the marines' loose circle. With a yell and four shots, one of the trainees took out three marines and the other dispatched the rest.

As soon as each of the marines was taken care of, Fred, Isaac, and the rest of their dysfunctional "team" had their weapons trained on each of the four other soldiers standing. One of the two newer arrivals stepped forward and held his gun in the air barrel up, sliding the magazine out of the gun and into his left hand.

"Don't shoot. We need to talk." Each trainee immediately knew it was John speaking.

"About what?" Vinh asked.

"Look around. Do you see the marines scattered around on the ground? That's what we're talking about." The second Spartan was obviously Sam.

"Then I guess we things to talk about." Isaac said.

John and Sam filled the other Spartans in on what they'd learned from encounters with marine patrols. They decided it would be in the best interest of all involved to make an alliance among the trainees until they'd taken care of the marines. They formed two teams -Isaac, Fred, Arthur, Sam and Alice on one team with John, Will, Vinh, Malcolm and Kelly in the second team. John's team would try to get any other Spartans to join their alliance while the other team would focus on taking out whatever marine teams they came across.

Fred and the others set out through the forest watching for marines. A group of four appeared from behind a particularly large tree suddenly and began firing on the Spartans. Isaac was about to take care of them when six more marines appeared on either side of the small group and began firing at them.

"Everybody down!" Fred yelled immediately. Alice shot two marines in the chest then dropped to the ground with two TTR rounds covering her legs. Isaac ran forward and covered the fallen trainee. Fred jumped forward, firing at the four marines covering their front and hit three of them. Four more took the place of each fallen man.

"Pull back! We can't hold this position, we've got to try to route them!" Sam yelled. They started into a fighting retreat.

Until twenty marines appeared behind them. The Spartans dropped to the ground and crawled to whatever cover they could find.

"Anyone have a plan?" Arthur yelled.

Fred ducked under a spray of TTR and fired at a pair of marines crouching behind a fallen tree. He adjusted his aim and took out two snipers from the trees, then gave an answer to Arthur's question since no one else was.

"Try not to die." Fred responded sarcastically. "Personally, though, I don't think our chances are too great."

_**Author's Note: Sorry about the late update. My sisters were home from college last weekend so I didn't really do much writing...more like any writing...at all... Anyway, so here's the newest chapter. What do you think? If somebody dislikes the way I'm writing any of the characters, say so in a review. Seriously, reviews are important. If you felt so inclined, you could review just for fun. Really, I wouldn't be mad at you. Please review.**_


	7. Stuck

_**Author's Note: I'm sorry my updates are so late, but I've got a lot going on in school right now, (not to mention I got Glasslands for my birthday and can't put it down!)so updates may be two or three weeks apart. This one will be even shorter than usual, but it's better than nothing...right?**_

_**Tom Phan: No, you're not a late talker, I am still updating, I am just not good at fast updates. I'm doing my best to turn Fred into more of a leading character. Hope I'm doing my favorite Spartan justice!**_

_**Since Naru Suzuki is the only one who commented on how I'm writing the characters, I guess I'll keep them how they are.**_

__Fred jumped and rolled behind a second tree. Another four fire teams had appeared on each side of the small team of Spartans but they were slowly making their way away through the marines. He dropped to the ground under a fallen tree next to Alice and Isaac.

"Have you seen anybody else? I haven't gotten a glimpse of Arthur since the first squads showed up, and Sam went off on his own a couple minutes ago." Fred asked as he fired at a pair of marines that had mustered enough courage to approach the trainees.

"You kidding? You're the first friendly face I've seen for the past hour!" Isaac laughed and fired again.

Suddenly two blonde boys dropped down next to the trio, shooting wildly behind them and shouting with joy.

"Sounds like you've seen something nice. Reinforcements?" Alice said after a few moments and thirty rounds from her rifle.

"No way! I'm just having a good time!" Arthur stood and laughed as he leveled his rifle to his hip and fired in a wide arc.

Fred crouched under a stray shot sent by a marine that had just been hit and stood next to Arthur, his rifle to his shoulder and taking down soldier after soldier.

"You wanna make this a little more fun?" Sam asked as he stood also. "Which one of you wants to stick around with me and hold off the marines while everybody else hauls outta here?"

Without hesitation both Spartans began to volunteer, but Fred elbowed Arthur lightly in the gut with just enough force to shut him up for a moment.

"I do." He smiled at Arthur and shot at a marine edging in from his left.

Arthur looked indignant and nodded. He moved back and shouted,

"Time to go, get up you two! We're moving now." Isaac and Alice stood and the three Spartans ran as fast as they could out.

Fred and Sam jumped forward and also ran as fast as they could -in the opposite direction.

Fred smashed into two marines and knocked them to the ground, then hit a third with the butt of his rifle. Two marines wrestled the gun away from him and Fred produced his S6, hitting three men in the chest and dropping them to the ground immediately. He punched a man in the chin and sent him spinning away and into another marine. A sergeant and four burly marines grabbed Fred from behind and tried to hold him where he was, but with an elbow to the nose of one man and a knee to the gut of another, Fred started to squirm free from the strong men.

He rung his right arm free from the near-iron grip of a man and shot him twice in the face. He swung around and hit the sergeant in the temple, then dropped the last man with three shots to his chest and neck.

An MA5B flew through the air and Fred easily caught it while simultaneously following its trail to Sam on the other end of the small clearing. Fred leveled the rifle at his hip and fired in a circle, dropping the surrounding fireteam. He turned to fire on another set of marines.

Then his rifle clicked empty.

Marines surrounded him and there were several clicks as they locked in new magazines.

_Crap._


	8. New Developments

Fred dropped to the ground and rolled -under the fire of the marines, under their feet.

He threw himself to his feet and spun around, hitting a pursuing marine in the jaw with the but of his spent rifle.

He turned again to run, then felt something well up in his chest. He knew Sam wasn't running, and neither would he.

While his instincts screamed _Run!_, his ego wouldn't let him. He saw five marines running at him while simultaneously reloading their magazines and let out what he was feeling in a wild, feral grin.

He sprinted forward, the marines coming closer to him at a frightening speed. One man tried to turn and run.

_Coward._ Fred thought and adjusted his direction to follow that particular soldier. He pushed himself as fast as he could, then leaped through the air and landed on the man's back. The sudden weight dropped him to the ground immediately, until Fred got on his feet in a low crouch and threw the marine between himself and the TTR coming from the other marines.

Fred laughed and pulled out his pistol and fired twice, hitting a man in the face. He ran forward again and dropped the S6, punching someone in the gut and feeling a crack that nearly made him wince in empathy for the soldier. He dropped to his hands and swept his feet under four of the marines and then tackled another. He punched him in the gut and face,

knocking him unconscious.

Fred didn't even bother picking up one of the eight MA5Bs littering the ground before throwing himself into the next knot of soldiers.

There were seven of them this time. Fred ran at them and jumped in the air, bringing both feet up and kicking two in the face immediately.

He spun around and kicked a third, throwing him back into the fourth and fifth, then headbutted the sixth and knocking the seventh and eighth men's heads together.

He grabbed two rifles from the ground and leveled them at his hips, firing until both their magazines were spent and twelve marines lay twitching on the ground in front of him.

A hand dropped on his shoulder and he spun around, ready to hit whoever it was with the end of one of the rifles until he saw it was Sam.

"You're insane man! You charged into over twenty five rifles at once! That was awesome!"

Fred looked at where Sam had been fighting and saw thirty men spread through the trees and on the ground, each one officially "dead".

"Are you kidding? You got more kills than me!" Fred exclaimed.

Sam hit Fred on the shoulder and threw four magazines off the ground at him.

"Well, all of my awesomeness aside, we probably better get back to saving the others. Leaving a bunch of people with Arthur? Not really our best plan." Fred smiled and nodded.

"Heck, I'd be surprised if any of them are still alive."

Fred and Sam ran in the direction Arthur had led Isaac and Alice until the found an area covered in TTR paint, some not even dried.

There were several bodies, each easily identified as marines despite how much paint covered them until the came across a body so covered in a rainbow of paint that they couldn't figure out who it was.

While Sam scoured the bodies for ammunition and any useful intel, Fred scanned the surrounding area in case of any surprise attacks from the marine company.

He heard a distant hum that grew in surprising speed, then a pelican flew overhead.

Fred looked at Sam and shrugged in response to the quizzical look on the other Spartan's face and the two ran to see where it landed.

Once they reached the landing site, Sam pointed out Chief Mendez walking around several marines as Spartans slowly came into the clearing. Fred and Sam stepped through the trees and a marine spotted them saying,

"Come on, get in the bird!"

Fred trotted up to Mendez and said,

"Sir, if you don't mind me asking, what the heck is going on?"

Mendez looked over the small stream of smoke trickling over his Sweet Williams' cigar and answered,

"You're gettin' your final augmentations, kid. Bone and muscle enlargements."

As Fred boarded he saw Kelly, Randall, Kirk, Isaac, Arthur and Alice already there. Kelly had a look of mild fear on her face that seemed extremely out of place when it wasn't her usual confident smirk or the face she made just before she cracked some joke.

After a few moments of awkward silence between all the candidates, Fred finally thought of a stupid joke in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"And the ODSTs think they're training's rough."

Everyone just stared at him.

"Okay, don't laugh _too _hard." They continued to stare at him. "Seriously, what did I do?" He asked.

After a few moments, Arthur finally answered.

"That was the _stupidest_ joke any of us have ever heard."

_**Author's Note: So...this is the next chapter. If you can call it that. I guess. I got this chapter up faster than I expected-I am having trouble finding time to type my story (school and such, hopefully you understand) but I really enjoy it and I Fred is my favorite Spartan, not to mention I love reviews (hint, hint) so I do it as quickly as I can. Any suggestions you have, put them in a review and, well, review 'em(hint, HINT). Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!**_**_Thanks to Tom Phan and WOLFxVSlayer667 for the compliments, I do my best._**


	9. Augmentations

_**Author's Note: Okay, so the last chapter wasn't so hot. I did make Fred invincible-ish, which I dislike about it in retrospect, but I will try to undo that in the next few chapters. I update faster when I get reviews(hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink).**_

__After they had loaded up the rest of the trainees, the Mendez ordered the pilots to take off. It was a tense flight from the training field to the base.

The marines quickly dragged the Spartans through to the experimentation facility and had them change into the hospital gowns.

Fred was now laying on one of the hospital beds staring at the granite ceiling. He traced one of the patterns until it ended in a crack between two tiles. He looked to the door just as an assistant -sporting a very large handlebar mustache- of Halsey's entered the room and began walking him through the different ailments Halsey had prepared for them this time.

He looked down at the short attendant when he realized he wasn't even paying attention and got the tail end of what the little man was saying.

"...and that's how long you need to wait before moving unless you don't want to send you nerves into chaos. I'll go get one of the doctors to hook you up."

Fred thought about asking Mustache how long he needed to wait, then shrugged and resolved that he'd figure it out later.

A man sporting a very dark, hairy unibrow and dressed in a lab coat entered the little room Fred was in and began setting up several machines, filling them with red and green chemicals and hooking large tubes to them.

"Where's Halsey?" Fred asked, then realized he already knew the answer. "Never mind, she's probably in with her favorite."

Unibrow didn't even look up from what he was doing.

"She is preparing Spartan-117 as I am you." Fred noticed that the doctor had a very stuffy English accent. It made him want to annoy the man.

"Yah, that's what I just said. In with her favorite." Unibrow glanced at Fred with a slight scowl on his face.

"The doctor is not some petty teacher, 104. She does not have any _favorites_." He tried to stress the last word, maybe to try to make Fred feel stupid or something, but all he succeeded in doing was sounding funny.

"No, I know she doesn't have any favorites. Except John." Fred grinned at the exasperated Unibrow. With a sigh, Unibrow said,

"Look, 104. Doctor Halsey is not your teacher, she is not you mother. She is simply a genius working for a way to stop the Insurrectionists. To have favorites she would have to care about any of you Spartans more than enough to know that you'll be our best shot at stopping any large force of Insurrectionists. She doesn't."

That took the next retort out of Fred's mouth. He knew that the Spartans had no real parents, the closest they had to a family was each other. But knowing this, he still had thought that Halsey was the closest to a mother that they'd ever had. He didn't trust Unibrow per-say, but the doctor's angry statement still made him stop and think.

That didn't mean he was going to stop annoying the man.

"Oh, doctor. Could it be that you're...jealous?" Unibrow looked at Fred for the first time. He had a hilarious mixture of confusion, anger, and annoyance on his face.

"Jealous? That preposterous! How could I be jeal-"

"Oh, I think you are. You're jealous that you aren't the favorite. Look, Unibrow, none of us are her favorites either, but we don't go around saying she has none just to satisfy our pride. Shame, Doctor Unibrow. Shame."

Unibrow's mouth hung open for a moment, but he shut it quickly and went back to work on the machines. Half an hour later Unibrow exited the room and returned with five other men in white coats. Fred didn't even have time to name any of them before they had the machines ready to do their job. The attendant -Mustache- returned and adjusted the bed Fred was ordered to lay on until he was in perfect range of the seven-inch needles preparing to inject their molotov cocktail of chemicals. Mustache left and Fred was left lying on the bed in an empty room. He heard the machines start humming quietly and prepared himself for what was coming.

The pinch of the needles stung, but Fred pushed past that feeling and made sure his tongue was nowhere in the vicinity of his teeth.

The humming stopped.

Their was a hiss, and Fred screamed.

Fred woke with a screaming headache. Well, a screaming everythingache. He moved his right arm. The hurt. He moved his left. That hurt. He moved his legs. They hurt. He stayed exactly the way he was. That hurt.

He waited for about half an hour on the bed, then decided to take a walk. He slipped his legs over the bed and sat up. That hurt like crazy. He stood, but he was suddenly a foot and a half taller than he remembered being when he went to sleep. Not to mention it felt like someone had just beat him with a bat, lit him on fire, and then put two magazines from an MA37 into him from point blank. Needless to say, it hurt.

The door was opening as he tried to take his first step, but the added length of his extremity was awkward and unknown. He gently put his foot on the ground, his other leg screaming profanities at him. Then he was face down on the floor.

Mustache ran into the room and tried to roll Fred over.

"Did you listen to a thing I said? You have to wait at least 48 hours before getting up and trying to move anywhere! Didn't you listen to anything I said?"

Fred was convinced his body was on fire, but he managed to say,

"Um...no."

Mustache got three marines and together the four men lifted Fred onto the bed.

"This time," Mustache said, "Don't get up for at least four more hours."

"Wait, it's been two days?" Fred slurred.

"No. It's been one day and twenty hours. Shut up."

So Fred did the only thing he could. Nothing. For four hours.


	10. Breaking Out

_**Author's Note: Ty: Thanks, I do my best to put down good chapters. Sorry this update wasn't "soon" in any way, shape, or form of the word. I will definitely try to get the next chapter up faster this time.**_

_**m1dnight217: I try to make it interesting and I just write the story how I would enjoy having read it, so I guess that's where any originality comes from. I though Glasslands was amazing. I loved every page. I thought it was very fitting that Halsey be arrested, she commited several crimes against humanity and no matter what her reasons were, or how awesome her actions made fanfiction, what she did was wrong and she deserved to be punished for it. What did you think of Glasslands and Halsey's arrest?**_

After at least seven eternities, Mustache came in the room and glanced at Fred as he glanced at lights on the consoles surrounding him.

"The doctor will be here in a few minutes to walk you through the procedures to get back up and moving."

Fred craned his neck up -which hurt, by the way- and looked at Mustache.

"Why don't you just do it? Why does it have to be Unibrow?"

Mustache sighed exasperatedly and pinched the bridge of his nose. After a few moments he opened his eyes and looked at Fred again.

"Look, 104. There are lots of Spartans to get moving, you're only number five of twenty I personally have to prep, and you surely aren't the easiest Spartan to get done with. It would really help if you would stop speaking for at least ten minutes."

"What happens in ten minutes?"

"I get switched out and someone else has to deal with you."

"Who's that? Is it Unibrow? Someone else?"

"Will you please be **quiet**?" Fred shut his mouth once Mustache yelled, and waited fifteen seconds before saying,

"You shouldn't let yourself get riled up like that."

Mustache glared at Fred and continued with his work.

After ten minutes Mustache left, mumbling something about why Fred couldn't be like John, and Fred decided he really didn't want to talk to Unibrow at the moment.

He jumped up from his bed -regretting the whole jumping thing once it happened- and stumbled over to the door. He poked his head out and scanned the hall for any threats, which were mostly made up of the three marines guarding each Spartan's door.

He quietly shut the door and searched around his small cell for a disguise. He considered donning his sheets and running through the halls yelling, "I'm a ghost, I'm a ghost!", but figured that that would end up being more problematic than it was worth. Besides, if he was going to get out for any amount of time, his costume had to be somewhat convincing.

Fred tripped and almost-fell his way to a small closet in the back corner of the small, white, padded room and saw a sweatshirt with UNSC stamped across the front in bold letters and MARINES stamped across the back, but figured it wouldn't be enough disguise to fool even a marine. He kept prodding through the closet until he found exactly what he needed; a white lab coat and a clip board.

He quickly threw the coat on and held the clip board near his face and practiced walking, then stepped out of his room with the clip board held close enough that the marines wouldn't be able to see his face.

The marines saluted him and one asked, "Moving on to 87 now, sir?"

In the lowest voice Fred could muster he responded, "That's right soldier." And quickly stepped into the door marked 087.

When he went inside, all the lights were off. He shut the door behind him and was suddenly pinned against the wall with an arm holding his neck back and some sort of sharp object against his throat.

He spun to the side so his attacker was against the wall, but for that received a high two-footed kick to his chest, making him stumble back.

He hit the wall with his back on the light switch, and quickly snapped it on to see Kelly charging at him with a broken off chair leg in her hand. He held out his hands to stop her and she tried to stop herself when she noticed it was him, but both attempts failed and the two trainees fell to the ground with a loud crash.

There was banging on the door and some marines yelling that they demanded to be let in and asking what was going on, but Fred yelled in his deep voice,

"It's alright! 87 just had a hard time getting up and fell. You're disrupting my work, shut up!" His voice cracked the slightest bit when he said "Up", but the marines didn't seem to notice and the commotion outside ceased.

Fred stood and offered Kelly a hand up, but she stood on her own.

"What the heck, Fred?" She asked through clenched teeth.

"Are you kidding? I come in to bust you outta here and you try to kill me with a wooden chair leg?"

Kelly was about to say something back, but for a moment stopped and stared at him with a questioning look on her face. After about a minute of looking at him Fred said,

"What's the matter? Haven't you ever seen an extremely handsome devil in a white trench coat before?"

Kelly looked at Fred's eyes for what he realized was the first time since she started staring and smacked the back of his head.

"What was that for? It was a legitimate question!"

"First of all, it was for thinking I think that you're marginally good looking. Second, they're called lab coats, third, and this should probably have been first, for thinking that a Spartan holding a clipboard who can barely walk could bust another out, and fourth, I just really wanted to."

Fred thought for a moment, then said,

"So if you weren't staring at me because of my dazzlingly good looks, why were you staring at me?"

"Because of your hair!"

"Well, I didn't exactly have time to comb it and make it look good seeing as my only real goal was to get out of this crazy-person motel, and then that turned into getting you out with me when the marines told me to go in here..."

Kelly sighed exasperatedly and smacked him again.

"Look." She said and picked up a mirror.

Fred looked into the mirror at his hair, which was now streaked with silver.

"What the...so now they're trying to make us look old or something?" He glanced at Kelly's hair and said, "That's not fair, your hair is still blue! Why the heck would my hair be turned old like that?"

Kelly studied his hair for a moment and said,

"I dunno, I kind of like it."

"So you _do_ like me." Kelly smacked him a third time and he shut up.

"It's kind of cool. Nobody has naturally silver hair like that, when people get old their hair turns gray or white, not silver." Fred glanced nervously at the door when a marine said,

"Doctor, is there something wrong in there?"

"Okay," he said, "We need to get out of here before the real doctors show up. Unibrow's already ticked at me as it is." Kelly opened her mouth to ask a question and Fred said, "I'll tell you who he is later. For now, we just have to get out of h-" He was cut off when the door opened and revealed Unibrow in his stuffy glory, surrounded by twenty very angry-looking technicians and marines.

"I think I know who Unibrow is now." Kelly whispered.

**_Author's Note: I'm very sorry to any readers that have put up with my sporatically distant updates, but summer is even more hectic than school when it comes to trying to get chapters written and stories updated. But, if you haven't given up on me, I swear that I will try to make the chapters worth the wait of my short updates. Tell me what you think I should improve on the story in the future(like making Fred less confident, making Kelly more of a prankster, making John less of a favorite, that kind of stuff)in a review, and I will try to incorporate it. If you like the way I'm writing all of the characters, you could just drop a review anyway!_**


	11. Annoying Marines and Breaking Things

_**Author's Note: Has anybody noticed that I took forever writing this chapter? That's because I moved into the basement, and it just added to my usual taking forever to update time. I really don't mean for these chapters to take so long, but I have this bad habit of slacking off a lot. And I've been spending a bunch of my time listening to the radio in my room. So that's why I haven't updated in forever. But while you sit there at your computer screen, judging my laziness, I would like to ask the readers of the last chapter(and obviously, this one) why **_**you _haven't _reviewed._ Oooh, didn't see that coming, did ya? So what if it's a pretty weird thing to foresee? For the record, if you did see that coming, I'm kinda freaked out._**

**_In actual chapter news, this shows that so far the story has been the tiniest bit AU, and that is because I have been writing the Spartans as about two years older than they were when they were augmented *i.e. The Spartan children were given their final augmentations when they were around twelve I believe, and I've been writing them as fourteen-ish._**

Back in his cell, Fred sat up when he heard the door open and saw Unibrow step in. He opened his mouth to say something -he wasn't sure what, but he thought it was really funny when the stuffy Englishman got angry- but Unibrow spoke first.

"Trainee 104, you are the last initiate in a very long line that I have had to run through and get out of the medical wing, and right now there is a large crowd of tall adolescents milling about in the hallways, and I believe Subject 39 has broken a minimum of seven of my personal belongings, let alone cracked my desk and dented my personal data pad. I want you and the rest of Halsey's freaks out of here just as much as you do, so please, _please_, don't open your mouth until you are out of this room, and preferably out of this building."

Fred slowly closed his mouth.

Ten minutes later Fred stumbled -he hadn't been able to get used to his new legs yet- out into a crowded hallway full of angry marines and bored fourteen year olds.

He spotted Will and Isaac standing next to a marine who was doing his best not to look at them, and made his way over to the three. When he neared them he heard the marine say,

"No, you do not get to touch my weapon, and yes, if you try I will be forced to incapacitate you."

"But what if we discovered and Insurrectionist unit that was able to bypass security, and we were forced to take your weapon from you because you had been wounded?" Will asked.

"I would give my weapon to another marine. Someone with the proper training to use it." He gave the two teens a snyde look as he said that.

"Oh, if we weren't in a military compound, it would be so on right now."

The marine snorted and said, "And if we weren't in a military compound, you two would be on the ground crying in a matter of seconds."

Fred had reached them by then and Isaac glanced over at him.

"What happened to you?" He began to examine Fred's hair, pulling it in places and poking just to be annoying in others.

Will looked at Fred as well and started staring at his hair.

"It's weird, the silver isn't even concentrated on your sideburns like an old guy. It's all over the place. Just streaks. And it isn't gray like our new marine friend's." The marine glared at Will for a moment before returning his stare straight ahead once again.

"Would you ladies quit staring?" Fred asked as he pushed Isaac and Will away. "It's not like I've grown a third arm or something."

Kelly walked by with Alice and Linda, saying something about Linda testing her sniping again and making sure she still had it when Kelly said,

"Hey Gramps." without breaking stride.

"Wait, are you guys going to the armory? We're allowed to leave?" Isaac asked of the leaving girls, trying to get their attention. "Come on, guys. If they get to go we can too." He said and started to walk away.

Fred went to follow, but realized something, rather, 42 somethings, were missing.

"Guys, where are the rest of us?"

Will and Isaac turned back, and Will said,

"Oh, you mean the other half of the Spartans? I'm sure they're just in another hallway, breaking other doctors' things."

Fred accepted that answer and the three moved off to follow the trio of girls headed for what they hoped was anywhere away from the hallway they were currently in.

_**Author's Other Note(or: Does This Guy Ever Stop Talking?): So...what'd you think? It's kind of short for such a long time between updates, and I know it didn't have any action in it, but does anyone really want to read a Halo version of Transformers 3? I don't. About that question I asked earlier(it's the sentence just after the third period and right before the fourth), what is your answer? I'll be expecting it in a review. Also, please review. Please?**_

_**P.S. If anyone knows how to get a Beta-er, or would like to be my Beta reader, please send me a PM and tell me what to do or if you'd like to. I've noticed that I really need one ever since I started going over the chapters I've written before. If anyone could give me any help with that, I would appreciate it so very muchly. **_


	12. Last Goodbye

_**Author's Note: Hey there people that read my story! Are any of you left? You could answer that question in a review. (hint hint) So... I know it's been forever since I've updated, but I have a reason. I really do. And that reason is Scout Camp. Yup. Anyway, so this chapter has gone along with the rest of my chapters in taking forever, and I'm afraid the next one will too(I have a reason, really!) But! If you are patient, and kind enough to review, after about two weeks I have pledged to myself to try to update once a week, but when I'm really busy once every two weeks. It would really help me get underway if somebody would review! No one's reviewed since Chapter 9! This is Chapter 12! I know I keep begging people to review, but that's because people keep annoying my constant plea! So, if one person could review this one, that would be awesome. Really, it would.**_

_**Also, in news that actually matters to the chapter, the next chapter or two will take a bit of a darker turn. Not "Dark Knight" dark, but more "Angsty teen/preteen children dealing with death in the family" dark.**_

Fred tried to wrestle the collar of his dress uniform back down. He hadn't been issued it for very long before he had bent it every which-way except the ones it was supposed to go, and it had only grown worse over time.

He turned down the right side of his collar, then slid his hands around the back, trying to straighten it out, then finished at the left side.

The young trainee wasn't really interested in the struggle, but he thought that the least he could do for the next meeting of nearly all the trainees was look half decent.

He glared again into the mirror as he noticed the right side of the collar had popped back up in defiance. He gave up with the shirt and donned his coat, then placed the cap on his head. He then realized he wasn't wearing pants.

While he searched through the small drawer he was allowed for the pair of dress pants, he almost didn't hear the opening and closing of the door behind him over the sound of his rummaging combined with the angry muttering and empty threats directed at the missing clothing.

He could usually tell whether it was Will or Isaac entering the barracks by the sound of their walk, but he had no idea due to the small shuffling steps he heard. None of the Spartans ever walked like that, they all strode boldly wherever they went, unless they were silently sneaking into the mess at midnight, but each trainee had taken to a timid, slow walk after they had been told what happened.

The frustrated Spartan stopped his third angry thorough search through his drawer when a hand shoved a pair of dress pants in front of his face. He glanced up as he took them from what he now saw was Will.

The young man pointed at Fred's bunk, where he suddenly remembered laying his pants out, and Fred nodded. Normally Will would crack a joke about how Fred couldn't keep track of anything, lately he had started targeting Fred's "Old Guy Hair", but he remained silent. Fred looked closer at Will's eyes and noticed a miniscule tint of pink. He was fighting hard not to lose it, Fred knew, but he was slipping.

Fred himself had cried the night they'd been told. He couldn't help himself. He kept his composure for the most part until they had been dismissed, but during the night he lay on his bunk and a few tears escaped his tightly closed eyes. Will had kept himself under control, but Fred knew that self-control would soon disappear.

Fred quickly put his pants on and just as he was buckling the belt he heard a sharp rap on the door. Isaac opened the door and both Fred and Will stepped out of the door, filing out past the drill sergeants ushering all the other trainees from their barracks and down the hall, toward the hangar where no one wanted to be.

As he stumbled down the hallway, Fred glanced around himself and found Grace, Vinh and Linda walking together behind them. Across the hall he saw Jai, Mike and Adrianna together. Ahead of them were Kurt, James, Joshua and Anton. All of the Spartans had gotten together in small clumps of three or four, and ahead of all of them were the "A Team", John, Kelly, and Sam.

John entered first, and Fred was glad it wasn't him. He wanted to prolong entering that hangar at all costs, and he noticed that everyone else did too. Their slow walk had decreased to a crawl. Even John had hesitated for a moment, but he was ever the brave leader and lead the procession inside.

Once Fred entered the hangar, he formed rank as ordered by the instructors around him and stood in line, staring at the thirty man-sized canisters lined up, ready to be ejected into space. A few crewmen wheeled in two medical gel canisters, containing Kirk and Rene. He didn't look up as CPO Mendez entered and began reading off the official farewell of the Navy.

He didn't really listen to the speech, but he did catch the last line,

"And now we commit their bodies to space."

He continued to watch the canisters as they were jettisoned from the ship, watched until they were too far to see, and kept watching. He watched as long as he could, before he was kicked out by one of the many instructors and then lead back to his barracks. As he was ushered out of the hangar, he took one last glance at the Spartans he could no longer see, then turned has back to them and walked away.

_**Author's Note: So, whad'ya think? I promise that this will be the last boring chapter for a while, but I think that it's important to see what happens to Spartans when they aren't in constant combat, and to see how they coped on a personal level that Eric Nylund didn't have the space to do in his books. You should really leave a review, so that I know whether you like this story or not. That would be awesome. Even flames are welcome (sobbing), just review! Please?**_


	13. Surprises

_**Author's Note: Hey people that are hopefully reading this! Guess what! TWO PEOPLE REVIEWED! They are awesome people. If you want to be an awesome people, you could review too. Just for fun.**_

_**So, anyway, I am starting that time where I start to review once a week, once every two at the very least! Is anyone excited by this? If so, tell me in a review.**_

_**It's been so long since I've gotten to do this on this story(not really, but still), so I am very excited to bring you...**_

_**RESPONSES TO REVIEWS!(iews...iews...iews...(get it, like an echo?))**_

_**Acemims: Thanks for being the first reviewer to review since chapter 9! I'm glad you liked it, I try to write it well.  
><strong>_

_**Guest: Thanks! I try to keep it interesting.**_

Just like the rest of the Spartans, it took Fred a long time to get used to the new extensions in his arms and legs, the sudden strength, and the freakish speed.

It had taken Kelly the longest to recover from the augmentations, but once she had she was far faster than anyone else could hope to be.

Sam was the first up on his feet. He was now the tallest of the Spartans, and was easily the strongest. Fred had seen him with one of the reinforced punching bags earlier, and he had beaten it until it fell apart.

Everyone was recovering well, and the Chief wanted to start them back into hand-to-hand combat training with their drill sergeants. While the trainees were waiting in the gym to start training, a few of them had moved over to start working out on some of the machines to make up for lost time while they recovered from the augmentations.

The trainers came in and began instructing the Spartans. They started with very simple attacks and defenses, and planned to move on from there. The only problem was that the trainers were getting hurt.

Fred's trainer came at him low, and Fred leaped over his back, landed in a roll, then came up and spun around with a fist to the turning trainer's jaw, which sent the man flying to the left to land a meter away. Fred ran to his side and the man sat up slowly, rubbing his jaw.

"You pack a heck of a punch, kid." He said as he accepted Fred's help to stand. They settled back in their fighting positions and the trainer instructed Fred to come at him this time.

The trainee walked directly at the drill instructor, then feinted left and rocketed right. He went for a light punch with his left and to the instructor's gut, which came in a lot harder than he had expected and took the man momentarily off his feet, then he spun around and hit the airborne trainer's shoulders and sent him to the ground with a loud thud.

Fred knelt down next to the instructor, who appeared to be unconscious and was bleeding. He looked up to find one of the medical crewmen being kept on hand, but saw that they were all rushing over to help the other trainers. A crewman came from behind him with a medical bag and pushed past Fred, then checked the trainer's pulse. She asked Fred where he had hit the instructor, then began scanning the places he had hit.

"Broken shoulder, cracked and shattered ribs, punctured lung. I need some biofoam now!" She yelled, and another crewman that had come pulled a canister out of her bag and tossed it to her.

She injected it into the trainer, then ordered the medic to take the man to the infirmary and get him help immediately, then she was running to another wounded instructor.

Fred looked around to see if there was anywhere he could help. Before he could help with anything he was pushed out of the way along with the rest of the Spartans. He noticed that Alice's eyes were opened wide, and stepped next to Mike and Sam.

"What's wrong with Alice?" He whispered.

"I think she killed her trainer." Mike answered. "I think Jai did too."

"Me too." Sam said quietly.

Fred thought for a moment, then asked,

"What happened.?"

"I'm not sure. The instructor came at me, and I grabbed him by the arm and threw him over me. His neck was twisted when he hit the ground, I guess, because it was broken."

The three trainees watched along with the other thirty Spartans as instructors were hauled out on stretchers or given medical attention where they were.

"The Chief's going to be ticked." Someone said.

**_Author's Note: Hey, I'm back! I say this because I took a week to write this chapter. Kind of pathetic, right? But when you start your first year of highschool, things get really busy it seems. Anyway, whad'ya think? You could tell me in a review like Acemims and Guest did. They are cool. Do you want to be cool? Don't do drugs. And also review my story. Please?_**


	14. New Location

_**Author's Note: Hey! I...um...Yah, I know that a practically broke my rule the first chapter I wrote. But, I did add the contingency of two weeks! So, ya know...that kind of works, right? I hope so. Guess what! I am updating right now. I got three reviews this last chapter, and that is awesome! So, I will give more responses to reviews!**_

_**spartan777: Thanks! Sorry my chapters are short.**_

_**Acemims: And something else...like what? I might have him visit the trainer but I doubt it. I dunno, maybe. Yes, you are cool.**_

_**MXUGhost: Thanks for saying my story's awesome.**_

_**So, MXUGhost asked what pairings are going to be in the story, and I told him in a PM. But! If anyone else would like to know what the pairings are, and enough people ask, I might say the pairings. I'm kind of worried about doing this, though, because the major pairing is something that most people I know of don't really like, so I'm worried that you guys will not want to continue reading. Anyway, if you would like to know the pairings, leave a review and you might be answered!**_

The Chief had loaded all the SPARTANs into Warthogs with extended middles designed to take extra soldiers almost as soon as the speed and strength tests were finished. No one really knew where they were going, they were just told to pack the few belongings they had and they were filed out into warthogs and taken away.

Fred sat next to Anton in the third of four warthogs traveling to...wherever they were going. He could see the white puffs of his breath as the cold early winter air ran past their faces. He heard one of the marines up front swear and swerve to the right, then correct.

"Stupid birds." He heard one of the marines mutter.

After roughly an hour, the warthogs stopped by what appeared to be a large mine and the trainers ordered all of the SPARTANs out.

Chief Mendez led the SPARTANs through the large entry tunnel had them drop off their belongings with a squad of crewmen. They then went through several security checks, each guarded by a pair of marines and state of the art recognition systems combined with three-inch steel doors that finally allowed them to see an elevator that would take them even deeper into the mine.

It was a small elevator, likely designed that way to bottleneck any Insurrectionist force that might get this far, as unlikely as that seemed. The elevator was so small that only five of the SPARTANs could go through at a time, but the elevator was fast, and in ten minutes the entire group was down. Mendez led them through another fifteen doors, past three checkpoints, and at least four squads of marines, they stopped in a cavernous room with floodlights hanging from various areas that overlapped to cover the entire space in light.

"This is where you will be training as a team. This is where you'll start." Mendez gestured to half a dozen of the old Mark I armor suits standing in the center of the enormous space. "You'll have fifteen minutes to make a battle plan. Your mission is to take out those suits, each is armed with TTR rounds. Time starts now."

Fred heard one of the marines snort ,"Good luck.", as John called the Spartans into a tight huddle.

"I'm open to suggestions, SPARTANs. Anybody have a good plan?" John asked from his kneeling position in the center of the trainees.

"I say we make a frontal assault." Sam said, cracking his knuckles, "Those tracking systems are too antiquated to track us at top speed."

"Except that they don't have to track us. All they have to do is spray in a rough area and over half of us go down from the first unit. What we need are hit-and-run attacks. Move in, take down one at a time, and get back out." Kelly said.

"Are you kidding? Not all of us are faster than lightning, 87." Sam returned.

"Both of you, shut up." John said. "Kelly, you take Anton, Li, Vinh and Alice and use flanking maneuvers to take them down. Sam, you take Fred, Isaac, Will, Arthur and Gray team, and charge the front. The rest of us are going to swarm the back of the bunker. Get in your squads."

The SPARTANs nodded and joined their teams.

"Trainees, your time's up. The training session starts now." Mendez's voice echoed across the cavernous space.

"SPARTANs, go!" John yelled, and with a thundering cry thirty-three children charged the six suits of armor.

_**Author's Note: Gah! So short! Sorry, spartan777. What did you think though? Did you enjoy it? Was it weird? Are cookies delicious? Are you bored by my apparent need to update boring chapters that have next to no action in them? Well, I promise that the next chapter will be full of action. It has to be, seeing as they all just charged six Mark I exoskeleton suits, not to mention whatever other surprises Mendez has for them. Anyway, leave a review please! Tell me what you thought about it! Tell me if you want the pairings to be revealed in the next author's note! Review, review, REVIEW! Please.**_


	15. Tricks

**_Author's Note: GAH! I'm a terrible person! I really am! I'm so sorry. First, I couldn't get any writing done, and then I got The Thursday War(which is amazing, by the way) and school got insane. But! Here is the next chapter, it finally came! I'm sorry that it's not really any longer than the normal chapters. Anyway, thanks to my beta, Apocalyptos._**

**_Acemims: Haha, I feel bad for your mouse. Thanks for being so enthusiastic about my story! There were multiple "I"'s in that review, haha._**

**_spartan777: Thanks! Sorry they're still so short. I'm glad you reciprocate my outlook on the subject of cookies._**

**_Tom Phan: Hey! You came back! Yah, I was kind of grasping at straws for that battle plan. Sorry. I really need to get my chapters longer, but I don't really have an attention span that allows that. I just try to throw chapters out there. Thanks for understanding why I'm not constantly on the battlefield. I hope this chapter is enough of a battle for you for now. I hope my writing style is still good._**

**_Guest: Thanks for your input. I really do need to work on the detail more, I just kind of skim over the writing sometimes when I'm trying to hurry. I'll try to put more detail into these next chapters. Good luck on your story! By the way, why would I delete your comment? Have I done that before? If so, I didn't mean to._**

**_Apocalyptos: Well, the wait was definitely longer. I just need to work on the length of the chapter now..._**

**_Shkadoom: Thanks! I really enjoy writing this story. Your name's awesome, by the way._**

Sam pulled ahead of Fred, Mike just behind him and Adriana to the side. two of the six exo-suits turned toward the charging SPARTANs, and their arm-mounted weapons started firing out green blobs of TTR. The trainees adjusted formation, with four SPARTANs on either side of the original assault by the trainers.

Jai shouted, "Incoming!", as a second hail of over-sized TTR rounds flew at them.

"Down!" Sam shouted, and dove down. Fred hesitated for a moment until he saw the hail coming directly at his face. Falling on his back and sliding under the line of paint, Fred rolled to his feet and kept running.

Fred glanced for the other teams, seeing the majority of the SPARTANs follow John around the side of the bunker, keeping their distance, and try to get around the back. He also saw that all but one of two of the suits were turning toward them, with one tracking Kelly's team and one tracking his.

"We've got to do something about those suits." Fred said to Jai as they ducked under another poorly aimed shot from the marine tasked with taking them out.

"If we take out that idiot facing us, it'll be easy to get the rest." The aggressive SPARTAN answered.

They started to near the bunker, which seemed to send the marine in overdrive and he began to fire continuously at the trainees.

Mike had his left hand on the edge of a bunker, about to throw himself up onto it, when a turret came up from beneath his hand.

Mike lost his balance from the surprise and fell down in front of the barrel. The turret followed the trainee down and started to fire. Mike rolled backwards, trying to stay out of the turret's automatic targeting system, until Jai jumped up onto the pedestal and bent the barrel of the turret until it met itself.

Jai turned to help Will onto the bunker when a large exo-suit's arm hit him across the back and threw him back off of the concrete structure.

Will and Sam were the first to near the suit. Will jumped onto its shoulders and started hammering the neck joint while Sam ran straight at the thing and smashed his fists one after the other into its chest.

Adriana helped Mike and Jai to their feet while Fred put his hands on the bunker and pulled himself up. When he was on top of the bunker he saw Isaac punching holes into another turret, then heard a hiss from behind. Spinning around, he saw another turret rising from the bunker with its barrel spinning, ready to fire. He stepped in close and ripped the cord feeding the TTR rounds into the turret before it had a chance to do so. As he ran in at one of the four exo-suits with its back to him.

He ran at one of them, then dropped to his back and slid between its legs, pulling out hydraulic tubes as he went. Fred came to his feet directly in front of the suit and grinned at the marine. The man glared at Fred and stepped toward the trainee...but his left leg refused to move. The man brought up his left leg on the HUD and saw that it had leaked nearly all of its hydraulic fluid. He then turned his attention to the weapon arm, ready to finish the little snot who'd taken out his mobility.

Fred watched the gun swing toward him, then jumped forward and onto the display of the suit. He could see the marine start to swear in at least three languages, then started to pull out the hydraulics in the arms of the suit. He finished with the shoulder joints, then looked down and saw Isaac and Sam finishing off an elbow each.

He jumped off the shoulders of the suit and landed looked around at the rest of the suits. Of the six that had been there to begin with, only two remained. Then he glanced at the SPARTANs and was glad to see that none of them had been hit with TTR. Kelly's team converged on the two remaining suits.

Fred watched as they started to rip the suits apart, until a door hidden in the rough floor of the cavern opened and a third suit jumped out, grabbing one of the trainees and firing on the rest. He saw the SPARTANs dive behind the sparking wrecks that used to be Mark I exoskeleton suits. The suit threw the trainee it had captured - who Fred recognized as Kelly - and turned to fire on her.

Sam suddenly came out of nowhere and smashed into the suit, toppling it. Fred, Isaac and Will started to go help Sam, until Will fell into another hidden door. As the SPARTAN came out of the ground on the shoulders of another suit, Fred and Isaac noticed two additional suits move toward them with speed disguised by their poor design.

"This is going to be fun." Isaac muttered sarcastically.

_**Author's Note: There it is! Did you like it? Did you not like it? Tell me in a review!**_


	16. Mistake

**_Author's Note: Again?! What's wrong with me? Here's the next chapter. I'm afraid it won't be too long, but I'm just throwing it out here so you guys don't think I've given up on this or anything._**

**_Guest: Thanks! I'll keep writing as much as I can._**

**_Tom Phan: Thank you, I try to keep my fight scenes as entertaining as possible. I haven't given up on this story and hopefully never will. I'm really enjoying your SPARTAN-IV story as well.(If you haven't read Tom Phan's stories, go read them now!)_**

Isaac ran left, Fred ran right. Two streams of TTR ran between them and then began tracking each SPARTAN.

Fred ducked into a roll that ended on his feet, running straight for the suit tracking him. He tilted right slightly and avoided a large glob of TTR with what felt like millimeters to spare. The suit and he were sprinting head-to-head, and with only a hundred yards stretched between them, Fred could see the face of the DI manning the suit and the intense look he wore. Seventy-five yards to go. Fifty. A turret popped up between Fred and the Cyclops when they were twenty-five yards apart and fired, but Fred jumped over the line of fire and hit the ground next to the turret.

He grabbed either side of the turret and spun it around toward his target while the turret continued to fire. He spun it full circle and hit the Cyclops with a hail of TTR just before it opened fire itself. Fred smirked as he saw the DI swear and start hitting his controls as the legs and arms slowed and eventually stopped following his commands, gummed up by the stun rounds still firing at the suit.

Fred stepped back and kicked the turret from its base, seeing it tumble to the rocky ground while the auto-feeders kept pushing rounds into now-empty air.

He heard Isaac yell,

"Fred, down!" instants before he was hit in the torso from behind and sent flying three yards into the air. He hit the ground and bounced four times on the uneven ground before sliding to a stop. He pushed the pain in his left side to the side and rolled to his hands and knees, then quickly moved to his feet. He staggered for a moment and his vision swam. His eyesight cleared just enough to see Isaac jump atop a Cyclops suit before its arm swung around and hit Fred again.

This time he couldn't tell how far he'd flown before he hit the ground, hitting his head on the lip of a rough divot in the floor of the cave. He once again pushed his pain out of his mind and pushed himself to his feet. He took a few steps toward what he thought was three SPARTANs and a Cyclops unit, but fell to his knees. Fred looked at his legs and willed them to work, but his left leg ignored him and stayed in the position it was in.

While the trainee was trying to work his malfunctioning legs, he failed to notice the turret slide quickly out of the ground twenty yards from him and take aim.

Fred registered the noise of flying projectiles before he was enveloped in green, rapidly stiffening paint from his right shoulder to knee, the TTR spreading across most of his body. The speed of the stun rounds both threw him to the ground and left him unconscious when he hit his head for a third time on an inconveniently placed rock.

Fred awoke in the barracks with the rest of the SPARTANs, most celebrating victory while a few sat silently in their bunks. John saw him sit up in his bunk and walked over to him, flashing a smile to the other trainee as he stood beside him.

"How're you doing, Fred?" John asked while he reached out a hand to help Fred up.

Fred accepted John's hand and pulled himself to his feet.

"I'll get back to you on that, Chief." Fred replied with a grin as he leaned against the bunks and shook his head to clear some of the disorientation.

"Take your time, you took quite the beating back there."

Fred nodded and looked at the rest of the trainees either talking or playing cards, Sam and Randal sparring in the back. He also noticed four SPARTANs sitting alone and talking quietly.

"What happened to them?" Fred asked and nodded in their direction. John glanced behind him and then back at Fred.

"Black took a 100% unit loss early in the fight. They're still pretty upset about it."

"What happened? They don't usually get beaten in any fight since the problem they had with Red.*****" Fred said.

"Victor got distracted and took a shot. When the others stopped to try to help him, they got separated from the rest of the group. By the time I saw them again, they had all been taken down." John answered.

Before Fred could get anything else out, Will and Isaac walked over.

"Morning, Sleeping Beauty! Will said with a cheeky grin and Isaac shoved Fred back.

"For a second you had John freaking out because he couldn't feel a pulse!" Isaac wore an equally cheeky-and annoying-grin. Will threw an arm around SPARTAN-117's shoulders and said,

"Isn't that right, Chief?" John shrugged out from under Will, who barely recovered before falling over, and backed away with his hands slightly up.

"Sorry Fred, but you're on your own." He turned and began to walk away faster.

"No, don't leave me with these guys!" Fred called after him, but John only increased his speed.

"Looks like you're stuck with us." Will said. Kelly and Alice walked past the group toward John and Sam and Kelly. Fred looked at Kelly and mouthed, _Help me._

Kelly gave him a somewhat sympathetic look before walking away.

"You can't get away from us." Isaac said, laughing. Fred sighed dramatically and said,

"I hope Mendez orders us to go to sleep soon." He sighed again in mock exasperation before CPO Mendez's voice came over the intercom in the barracks.

"SPARTANs, get to sleep. This is the last night you'll be able to afford the luxury of barracks, so I suggest you use it."

"Dang it, Fred, you jinxed us!" Will jokingly whined and the three trainees split up and went to their bunks.

***I can't figure out who was on Red Team during the whole Red/Black Team incident, so I decided it was Jerome, Alice and Malcolm.**

**_Author's Note: There's another one! How'd you like it? I even threw in a little Master Chief cameo for those of you who are big fans of him(and because I need to work on the character development, but I digress.) You know what would be awesome? If you left a review. That would be really cool. Please do._  
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	17. Tango

_**Author's Note: Gosh darn it, I did it again. At least I'm updating twice within sixty days this time. That's a little better, right?**_

_**KimJel(16):And that ultimate solution would be...?**_

_**KimJel(15):TTR stands for Tactical Training Rounds. It is actually paint. This is a quote from Halo Nation: "The TTR has a plastic polymer shell that helps maintain the actual characteristics of bullet flight. Inside, there is a proximity fuse that dissolves the shell when the round comes within 10 centimeters of a surface. Once dissolved, a blob of red paint splatters onto the target."**_

_**KimJel(14): I do. My minimum for these chapters is 1,000 words.**_

**0230 Hours, September 8, 2525 (Military Calendar) / Epsilon Eridani System, Reach UNSC Military Complex, Planet Reach**

The past few weeks had gone by in a blur, lots of training, so much that when Mendez finally released the SPARTANs, they collapsed in their make-shift barracks.

The first night the SPARTANs had faced the DIs in the Cyclops suits was the last that any of they had seen a "real" bed for two weeks. Not that any of them would complain, they preferred wandering the caverns of the base, relatively un-watched. They found all of the cameras placed through their regular living areas, but John told them to leave some of the cameras active to let the DIs feel like they didn't need to come and replace all the cameras.

During the months since the SPARTANs had been augmented Mendez's little toy soldiers, the trainees had trained against a marine company stationed on Reach -called Tango company- more than a dozen times. The marines were starting to get upset about the losses they continued to sustain against children. Which was probably why Fred was currently being hunted by a ten-man fireteam, with a tank slowly rumbling his direction.

The mission was supposed to have been simple. Fred, Sam, Jai and Victor were supposed to get into Tango's base, grab some ignition chips and set their munitions lockers to fire roughly thirty rounds at whoever opened the door. Sam's four man team had done their job seamlessly -it was whoever was on alert duty that screwed up. Someone was supposed to be in charge of fixing the dogs so they wouldn't wake up if a mortar landed two feet away from them. Someone screwed up. Victor had grabbed all the ignition chips and a few spark plugs from the Warthogs around Tango's base, and Jai was working on their tank, while Fred and Sam finished the munitions lockers.

Jai had been hit while looking into the engine of the tank, Victor took a few rounds in the back while heading for Sam and Fred. The two trainees slung the limp Victor between them and started running. They were headed for the hole in the perimeter fence they had made to get in to the base. When Sam ordered Fred to split up, Fred picked Victor's legs up and slung the trainee over his shoulder and continued for the fence. Sam spun off to the left in the general direction of the base's main gate, drawing the fire of most of their pursuers.

Fred reached the hole in the fence and pushed Victor through it, then rolled through himself. He turned back for just a moment to fire two shots, hitting a marine in the chest, then grabbed Victor and began running again. He eventually found a place he thought was relatively safe and was sure he could return to as soon as possible, then backtracked enough that the marines could see him, and took off in the opposite direction.

Fred ducked under a burst of three TTR rounds, which impacted against a large tree in front of him. Fred crouched and spun around, moving slowly toward one of the nearest marines angrily firing on the his former position. He slowly pulled the S6 handgun from his belt and checked to make sure that it was ready to fire. He took a tentative step forward, and a branch snapped loudly beneath his unnaturally heavy feet. Two marines snapped their rifles at the trainee and opened fire. Fred threw himself to onto his back and rolled to his left, back under a tree.

He slowly tried to look out from one of the underlying branches, but nearly got a face full of TTR for his efforts. Instead, the SPARTAN merely reached out his gun and fired in the direction of Tango's feet. He heard a couple of the men curse and start jumping, but at least one man lost both his feet and fell to the ground - face toward Fred. Fred saw the shoulders of the man just under the heavy branch he was using for cover. The marine started to lift himself up using his arms, until Fred put a round in both elbows. He then hit the soldier twice in the chest.

Fred glanced to his left and saw two pairs of feet rush out of view. Glancing to his right he saw one foot carry out of the small gap of vision his cover afforded him. Then he felt two hands on his shoulders try to lift him up, out from under the tree. He looked into the face of the marine carrying him and then saw the eight men that made up his fireteam. Each soldier had an angry sneer on their face, and each had their rifle trained at the SPARTAN.

The trainee slowly let go of his handgun as the marine stepped back and lifted his hands.

"Let's be friends?" He said with a small grin.

"Ready." The man, he was a sergeant, said. "Aim." Eight bolts clicked on eight MA5Bs.

"Fire."

_**Author's Note: There it is! Took a little longer than I expected, and it's a lot shorter than I expected, but it's finally out! Leave a review, save the starving heart of an author!**_


	18. Currently Untitled

_**Author's Note: So, it's been brought to my attention that all of the story being in the eyes of a teenaged SPARTAN so far is getting a little boring, and after contemplating it I've decided to start moving my timeline a little faster. Each chapter following these next three(allowing for the end of this match, and then the mission to Epsilon Eridani) will go along at a much faster rate, maybe one to two chapters for every year, and then eventually I'll start skipping several years at a time. Does that sound good? Tell me in a review!**_

_**KimJel: Well, I use Halo Wikia to confirm what I've already read in books, but all of the characters I use are either from the games or from what I've read, not Wikipedia. If you'll check the timestamp, this event is in 2525 while the one in First Strike was in 2523.**_

_**Logon98: Thanks for favoriting and following my story!**_

**0235 Hours, September 8, 2525 (Military Calendar) / Epsilon Eridani System, Reach UNSC Military Complex, Planet Reach**

Fred's arms were still in the air as nine shots fired. Eight men hit the ground before Fred lowered his arms.

Four SPARTANs left the surrounding foliage with smoke still trailing from their pistols' barrels.

"That's the third botched mission so far." John said as he walked toward Fred. "Something's off." Fred bent down to retrieve his own pistol and checked the ammunition in it.

Linda, Daisy and Sam checked the area around Fred and John, then walked to join them.

"Or maybe its just something about our squad leaders." Linda said with a pointed look sent toward John while she tried to scratch some TTR off her leg. John held his hands up in defeat and backed away from Linda.

Fred leaned toward John in an attempt to keep the withering glare off of himself, but she kept it firmly planted on the squad leader until she returned to cleaning her leg of TTR. After waiting to make sure that she was done, Fred whispered to John,

"What did you do to deserve that?" John merely shrugged and gave Fred a helpless look.

"I wasn't even there when she got hit. But...I guess I did giver her the order that resulted in it." John thought for a moment, then shrugged again. "Alright, we need to get back to the rest of our team. Pack it up everyone, take magazines from these guys, but leave their rifles. James found out the hard way that these MA5s are voice-coded."

Fred winced. The last time he discovered a cache of voice-coded weapons the magazines exploded in his face. It took the doctors a week to get all of the shrapnel out.

The team took up formation as they moved toward Victor with John taking point, Daisy, Linda, Sam, and then Fred in the rear. The brief reprieve the five trainees had taken nearly allowed the lumbering tank to catch up with them, so they had to hastily construct a block around the downed marines so they weren't unknowlingly crushed beneath the heavy vehicle.

As the SPARTAN team approached Victor's position they encountered four marines. John slid his left hand over his right palm, and then flicked his temple twice.

_Hands only._

Fred stepped up behind one man and smashed him in the head with a rock. The rock crumpled a portion of the helmet, and while the man was trying to figure out what had happened Fred put his arms around the throat and tightened his grip, holding the man's throat until he stopped struggling and the man collapsed. The SPARTAN eased him down silently and glanced to make sure that the other trainees had taken care of their marks, then continued to Victor.

John reached their teammate first, and raised his fist to order the others to stop. The squad leader slowly backed away and whispered,

"They got Victor.", drawing to _X_'s over his eyes.

The rest of the team turned and eased their way through the trees away from the fallen SPARTAN's position.

Taking an alternate position, the squad separated along a level plane between a hundred feet. Sam neared Fred and raised his left hand to the back of his neck and rubbed it.

_Sorry_.

Fred carried his right hand over his head, indicating that he had forgotten about it. Without warning, the outdated communicator strapped to John's wrist buzzed. John typed in the code to open it and the face of Staff Sergeant Williams - the SPARTANs' handler for this mission - appeared.

"SPARTAN-117, get your team to the evac zone. leave the casualties. Another splinter of your team has completed the objective, and you're currently being hunted.

"Understood Sir. We're on our way."

The SPARTANs began to sprint from their position toward the evac zone they had all memorized before the mission began. Meeting very little opposition that they were able to avoid or take care of with ease.

When they reached the evac zone, they found a relatively small team of SPARTANs waiting for them. Among them was Kelly, Will, Li, and five others. Mendez stepped onto the blood tray of a lowering Pelican and ushered the trainees inside.

"We've already picked up your teammates, and they're on their way back now." Mendez said, then stayed silent for the rest of the ride. Fred sat down in between Will and Sam, the latter sitting by John. Fred noticed that Linda had sat down by John and had replaced her angry glare with laughing at the jokes John quietly made to her.

The three teenaged boys looked at the sniper and the team leader talking for a moment then all sat back and sighed exasperatedly at the two's actions.

Fred made eye contact with Kelly, who was sitting across the troop bay and had also been watching John and Linda with disgust. Kelly pantomimed Linda's laughing at all of John's jokes and Fred snickered, then pantomimed John. The two trainees continued this, stopping to laugh at each other once in a while, until Fred noticed Sam and Will staring at him with a look on their faces that said, _'Really?'._

Fred coughed uncomfortably and sat back, trying to avoid looking at his two friends for the rest of the flight.

**_Author's Note: So, there's another chapter. I had a small mixture of combat and talking-ish stuff there. Did you enjoy it? Tell me in a review! Also, tell me what you think of my new game plan, please. Remember, reviews are love!_**


	19. Black Storm

_**Author's Note: Hey, I'm back. I have a question for anyone who is still reading this story. So, I'm trying to decide if this story is still worth continuing. So if anyone would like to continue reading this story, please leave a review or do something of the sort to indicate that you would like to read this. If not, I will discontinue it.**_

_**KimJel: Yes, John/Linda. I happen to support that pairing, and I'm sorry that you don't approve of it. I'll try to lengthen these.**_

**0630 Hours, September 12, 2525 (Military Calendar) / UNSC Destroyer _Pioneer_ , en route to**  
><strong>Eridanus System.<strong>

Fred sat on the deck of the Armory of the _Pioneer _and took a combat knife from a locker packed with them. He pulled the knife from its sheath and flicked it into the air. The combat knives were not completely balanced, and the handle of the knife began to spin down faster than the blade. The knife finished in a circle with the blade facing up, and Fred caught the knife out of the air.

Their mission was to grab Colonel Watts, the alleged rebel leader, from a hollowed-out asteroid, then get out. It sounded simple-as simple as exfiltrating a governmental leader from a rebel base could be, and that sounded alarms in Fred's head.

The SPARTAN listened as his teammates conversed about gear and weapons, and then stood to select his own kit along with the others. He selected two combat knives, strapping one to either shoulder.

"Three-ninety caliber?" he asked as he picked up an MA2B, then nodded at the team leader's affirmative orders. He took four magazines and strapped them to the belt around his waist, then grabbed a lock-breaker after a few moments' thought.

"Everyone ready?" John asked. Fred nodded. "Then let's get to work."

**1210 Hours, September 14, 2525 (Military Calendar) / Epsilon Eridani System, Eridanus 2 space **  
><strong>dock, civilian Cargo Ship, <em>Laden<em> (registry number F-0980W)**

Fred and the other SPARTANs climbed the girders of the ship they were stowing away on. He took out a packed support net and tossed a corner of it across an empty space to John, then tossed another corner to Sam. He caught a corner sent to him by Linda and secured it next to the corner of his own support net.

Looking at her databad, Kelly anounced, "I'm in. There's no AI or serious encryption...accessing their system now. They've got nav trajectory to the asteroid system. ETA is ten hours."

"Good work." John said. "Team: We'll sleep in shifts." Fred snapped off his helmet lights and pretended to go to sleep. He couldn't, however, help from listening to Kelly and John talk about the ship manifest. "We'll tag this stuff and follow it."

"Won't be that easy." Fred flicked his flashlight back on. "

"We only have one advantage on this mission. The rebels have never been infiltrated—they'll feel relatively safe and won't be expecting us. But every extra second we stay . . . that's another chance for us to be spotted. We'll follow Kelly's hunch."

"You questioning orders? Scared?" Sam said, and Fred grew angry at the mere implication in Sam's challenge. He paused for a moment to avoid snapping at the other SPARTAN, then said,

"No. But this is no training mission. Our targets won't be firing stun rounds. I just don't want to fail."

"We're not going to fail. We've accomplished every mission we've been on before." He paused for a moment. "Rotate sleep cycles. Wake me up in four hours."

Fred too rolled over and went to sleep. Four hours later, he was woken by Sam. He and John contemplated waking Kelly, but decided she could take the last two-hour shift alone. Fred tried to make a few jokes about going for a late-night swim, but didn't really feel into it. As vehemently as he would deny it to any other trainee asking him, Fred was nervous about their first real mission. Fred and John talked less and less frequently until they simply sat in silence.

After four hours, John woke Kelly up and Fred rolled over to go back to sleep. Kelly woke Fred up and they all eventually climbed out the hatch and repelled down the tank. Fred grabbed his coveralls and stepped into them, then picked up his duffel bag filled with his MA2B and magazines inside, along with the lock-breaker.

"Cigars are this way." Kelly said and the team followed her. Eventually she held up a closed fist and the SPARTANs halted their forward movement. She pointed to a hatch, and John signaled Fred and Kelly forward. Fred pulled the lockbreaker from his duffel bag and placed it on the hatch. The lockbreaker hummed, then the hatch popped open. He swung it open further, taking one last look behind him as Kelly climbed through the hatch and then climbed in himself, closing the hatch behind him. Once inside, Kelly and Fred put their helmets back on and clicked on their flashlights. Fred knelt next to the hatch with his rifle ready while Kelly opened a box of the Sweet Williams' and placed a nav marker inside it.

Fred eased the hatch open ajar, waited until the dockworkers were out of sight, then opened it and jumped out; looking down the hallway with his rifle raised. He and Kelly ran to the rest of the team.

Together, the five SPARTANs left the _Laden_ and entered the rebel base. Fred was impressed by the size and magnitude of the facility the rebels had achieved. Hundreds of ships were in the hangar, filled with workers and small tracks carrying ships to and from an airlock. Despite the Insurrectionists' impressive work, the SPARTAN regarded each worker he passed as an enemy and watched them all carefully. He put his hand on the gun in his duffel bag.

"Spread out. We look like we're on parade ground." John ordered. Fred drifted right of the team, putting distance between himself and the others. Fred saw John give Kelly permission to take care of the guards, and saw her pull the first guard inside. The entire team simultaneously stepped toward the second guard, but John reach him first and snapped the man's neck, dragging the second guard into the entrance as well.

When he entered the building, Fred immediately shed the extra clothing and donned the helmet accompanying his black suit. Sam entered and shut the doors as Linda reported their target's location. Sam and Kelly finished locking the doors and Fred and Linda covered the other three while they finished their suits.

"Go."

Kelly opened the door and almost immediately five rounds coughed from the barrels of two MA2B's, and five bodies crumpled to the ground. Fred entered past John, Linda, and Kelly. There was one man slumped across a counter in the center of the room, two collapsed against the elevator, and one on the ground in front of the desk. He could see a pair of boots that belonged to an unlucky guard poking out from behind the desk. Fred scanned the room for targets, then dragged the limp bodies out of the way behind the counter of the room. He noticed one of the men was not in uniform, and decided to think about it later.

Kelly signaled that the stairwell was clear and the team moved toward her and their way up.

Behind them, the elevator pinged. The doors opened.

_**Author's Note: Whew! That chapter took me forever because of all the cross-referencing I had to do to make it correct. But, it's finished now so yay! Anyway, please leave a review and tell me what you thought of it!**_


	20. Kick the tires and light the fires

_**Author's Note: Oh dear. I should be fired from writing. I'm really sorry, honestly. I just lose track of time between working and sleeping and...well more the work is with family, and it's more fun than work, but I digress. I feel awful about the huge time break here, so I'm going to try to make up for it with a really great chapter! Probably won't work, but whatever.  
><strong>_

_**KmJ170: New name, huh? Interesting. Yes, I agree that rewriting books is extremely lame, but I thought that this time it would be prudent to the story. Prudent. That's a great word, don't you think? Right up there with the greats, like applicable. Sorry about being repetitive, it just kind of happened. I'm kind of wondering about that, but I figured that I might as well try, seeing as I'm stealing most people's favorite pairing, but I think Fred/Kelly is a lot better for many reasons, one of which being that John and Kelly have more of a brother/sister relationship in my opinion. Which would be weird. I actually dislike stories that center on John, because he gets pretty much everything in the franchise from games to books. I prefer the other characters myself. Thanks for your input! I'm certainly taking it into account, but I haven't made any concrete decisions yet.**_

_**Dankoon117:(8)Thanks! I try. And miserably fail. (9) Thanks again! (19)Thanks. One of what fanfics? I'm kind of confused there...**_

_**SeperatistSupporter: Thank you, I try to keep it interesting. Thanks for reading as much as you have, I hope I haven't scared you off with the huge wait.**_

The car was empty. Fred lowered his rifle.

They moved to the stairs, Fred in front of Sam, and moved up. They stopped and Fred detected heat signatures. He watched John open the door on their landing and check the hallway, then moved into the hallway and covered John as he pried the elevator doors open. Fred fired up his suit's cooling filters and then stood in the doorway, watching Sam and John's progress as they climbed the cables up the elevator shaft.

He and Kelly jumped into the shaft and climbed the cables, then bracing in two corners to be able to cover the doorway. John held up three fingers, then lowered them one-by-one until he and Sam pulled the door open. He quickly assessed the room. Five guards, carrying old-model rifles. Two began to turn.

Fred eyed down the sites of his weapon at center mass on the guard facing him on the right. He fired a short burst before swinging his rifle to another guard fumbling with his weapon. Fred shot him in the side as the man turned, then once more in the chest.

They all moved into the room, Sam stooping to collect the HMG-38's. He saw two doors, one going out on a balcony and the other with a peephole in the door. Kelly moved to check the balcony, then reported,

"This overlooks the alley between buildings. No activity."

Fred moved over and flanked the door, Sam on the other side. This wasn't good. No thermal readings, no indicators of what lay beyond the door. There could be a platoon of Gúta's waiting to pounce for all they knew. Still, they had a mission and they were going to complete it.

John kicked the door in, and Fred took in the room. It was extremely decorated, obviously the Colonel's apartment. There were four men including their target. The three men surrounding the Colonel opened fire and hit John as he dove to the left. Fred watched as John found a shot, and took it. He and Sam seemed to move in unison as Fred swung around the door and dropped to a knee while Sam stayed standing. Fred sent three bullets into the guard across the room from him.

Watts stayed crouched behind the crate with a pistol in his hand.

"Stop! My men are coming. You think I'm alone? You're all dead. Drop your weapons." John moved into the room and crouched behind the bar. He held up two fingers, then pointed over Watts's head. Fred lifted his aim point two inches and fired a burst over Watts. As the Colonel ducked down, John flew over the bar, then jumped over the crate and onto the soldier. Kelly and Linda moved past Fred and Sam, into the apartment, and Fred fell back to cover the elevator. Kelly seemed to check John's wounds, and Sam said,

"Incoming vehicles. Six men entering the building. Two taking up position outside...but just the front."

"Get our package inside that crate and seal it up." John said. Then he grabbed his gear, dropped a rope over the balcony and repelled down. There was a moment's silence, then he clicked his throat mike twice. Kelly hooked a decent ring on the crate and pushed it over the balcony. Linda followed it down, then Sam. Fred nodded to Kelly and she went down next. Fred did a final sweep of the room before zipping down the line.

Fred immediately pulled his coveralls from the duffel bag and put them on, then grabbed the crate with Sam and they carried it into the adjacent building. They exited onto the street from that building. Uniformed men ran past them but didn't give the team a thought. They quickly made their way to the recently-emptied locker room.

"Everyone check your seals. Sam, you go ring the doorbell. Meet us on the dropship." Sam nodded to John then ran from the locker room. John threw what Fred assumed was the panic button into a locker.

Kelly spoke to John,

"Your suit is better get to the ship now, before Sam sets off his fireworks." Fred began checking seals on the crate, then grabbed one of the handles as Linda grabbed the other. They left the locker room in formation and made it to the battered Pelican they had spotted on the way in. There was an explosion and the airlock at the far end of the hangar opened into a hole leading to space. Blast doors began to lower until another explosion rocked the cavern and the door fell from its housing tracks.

Bay doors closed behind them, locking the city off, but locking dozens of dockworkers in and sealing their fates. Fred tried not to hear the screams of men being pulled into hard vacuum. He saw Sam sprinting toward the Pelican, then get in through the emergency air lock. "Back door's open."

Kelly hit the engines and the Pelican surged through the hole, leaving the asteroid an ever-shrinking space rock behind them.

"We'll hit the extraction point in two hours." She said as she eased the engines.

"Check on the prisoner." John ordered. Sam opened the crate and checked on Watts.

"The seals held. Watts is still alive and has a steady pulse."

"Good." John said.

"Something bothering you? How's that biofoam holding up?" Kelly asked.

Fred stopped listening to the conversations as he thought about the mission. It seemed like there were too many deaths-it was too messy for a SPARTAN team. But he shouldn't feel guilty, those were all rebels against the UNSC, enemies to his entire way of life. He heard John say,

"Nothing's wrong. What could be wrong? We won."

Fred couldn't help but thinking, _Some victory._

**_Author's Note: There it is! Chapter 20! Yaaaaaaaay! What did you think? Good? Bad?Intermediate? Tell me in a review!_**


	21. Midground

_**Author's Note: Hey, I'm back already! Were you worried about me? Maybe? No? Okay. Well, thanks to anyone who's reading this!**_

_**Thanks 1 and Doublej43 for your favorites and follows and stuff!**_

_**Doublej43(1):Thanks, I haven't gotten to read yours yet, but I'm interested.**_

**06****00 Hours, September 18, 2525 (Military Calendar)/UNSC Destroyer _Pioneer_**

**En route to Planet Reach**

"What's wrong with you?"

The question took Fred by surprise.

"What?"

Isaac glared at him from across the table in the Mess Hall.

"What's wrong with you?"

Fred still had no idea what Isaac was talking about. He cocked his head and looked questioningly at his friend.

Isaac sighed and rolled his eyes, "You've barely said anything since you got back. You've just been sitting there twirling your fork around the...food...for five minutes."

With some measure of surprise, Fred looked down and realized that he had been doing exactly that. There was now a thick coating of dietary substance on his plastic utensil. He pushed the tray away from himself.

"Nothing's wrong with me. I've just been thinking."

"Does it hurt?" Will asked as he elbowed Fred jokingly in the side. Fred took the food-encrusted fork and hit Will upside the head, leaving a mark where the food landed. Will almost fell backwards from the surprise of the hit. He grabbed a napkin and started to wipe the stuff off while thinking of ways to get back at Fred.

"You two are morons." Isaac said as he rolled his eyes. "I'm going to work out; if you two get done being children, feel free to join me." Isaac stood and left the mess hall.

_Someone's cranky._ Will mouthed at Fred.

Fred shrugged and stood up. He grabbed his tray from the table and quickly ate the remaining food. He put the tray on the sanitation counter and left the mess hall moving toward his bunk. On his way there he thought about visiting John - the SPARTAN leader had taken a few shots during their mission. Fred mentally shook his head and decided that he would go check on the Chief later.

He made his way to the quarters provided to the SPARTANs and quickly changed his clothes into a shirt and sweatpants. He saw Kelly sitting on her bunk, and moved over to her. He stood there in a silent invitation. Kelly looked up at him and he said,

"Gym." Kelly nodded, and stood to walk with him. They entered the Rec Hall and Kelly, typically, immediately headed for the track. Fred scanned the room and noticed Sam lifting weights and Lee practicing in a lower gravity environment. Isaac and Will were sparring in the ring.

Fred moved over to the weights and was starting on the Chest Press when Kelly came over.

"Couldn't get anybody to spar with me. You're always dumb enough for a fight." Fred rolled his eyes and nodded at Kelly. She stood from her stooped position with a predatory grin and offered him a hand up from the seat he was in. Fred took it and let Kelly haul him to his feet - grinning silently as he pushed against her slightly. Kelly got him mid-way up and dropped him. She walked over to one of the other rings.

Fred stood up and followed her, ducking under one of the edges and entering the ring. Kelly bounced on the balls of her feet, with her fists up. Fred put his fists halfway up, then dropped them and charged Kelly.

She stepped away from him far earlier than he could have ever reached her. He knew it was worthless, but he reached out as he passed and hit her shoulder with his fist. Kelly spun around and brought her foot up in an attack, but Fred fell backwards and out of range. Kelly backed away, and Fred could see a dangerous glint in her eye even from the distance.

Fred took a half step backwards before Kelly suddenly leaped at him. He tried to spin out of the way, but she pushed a fist out and hit him in the face. He spun slightly, but turned back and took another step backward. Kelly was on the ground now, and swept his feet out from under him with a sweep of her legs.

Fred hit the ground hard and rolled, only to have Kelly land on his midsection with her elbow. He spun over and threw her off her balance, then grabbed her shoulder and pinned her to the ground. She threw her feet in the air and completed a backwards somersault and wrenched herself out of Fred's grip.

She regained her feet and spun around, catching Fred in the chin with a right hook. Fred stumbled before catching himself and charging forward. Kelly blocked all of his hits on her forearms and kicked at him. He lifted his leg to block the hit and Kelly took the opportunity to get some hits in. Fred hunched over and hit Kelly in the stomach, then backpedaled away.

Kelly jumped forward, rolled in the air and landed with both feet on Fred's chest, propelling him backward and into the cords around the edge. He rocketed forward faster than his feet could travel before tripping up and landing on his face.

Kelly quickly stepped forward and knelt on his shoulder blades. He tried to rock his feet over his head to dislodge her, but she grabbed his foot and threw it back down. She held his legs down by the ankles and pinned him.

"Give up?" She asked slightly out of breath. Fred growled and shook his head. "Okay." Kelly responded more smugly.

Fred refused to admit defeat for another five minutes before John finally jumped in the ring and said,

"Fred, you lose. This match is over."

Kelly grinned and stood up off of Fred. Fred groaned as she stood and sucked in a large gulp of air, the rolled onto his back. Kelly offered him her hand again and she hauled him to his feet.

"I still didn't lose." Fred muttered good-humoredly to her.

"Sure, Hotshot." Kelly said and hit him lightly on the shoulder as they left the ring.

When Fred got down, Will and Isaac laughed at him for a moment, then they all left the Rec room and made their way back to their bunks.

_**Author's Note: Yay! There it is! I finally got a chapter written out. Did you enjoy it? I hope so. Leave a review and tell me what you think!**_


	22. MJOLNIR

_**Author's Note: Hey guys! How are you? Awesome? Awesome! So, new chapter. That's good, right? I hope so.  
><strong>_

_**RESPONSES TO REVIE-oh, wait. Never mind.(hint hint) Thanks for following, McFusterCluck(I've gotta be careful with that name...:P)**_

**1750 Hours, November 27, 2525 (Military Calender)**

**/UNSC frigate_ Commonwealth_ **

**en route to the UNSC Damascus Materials Testing Facility, Planet Chi Ceti 4  
><strong>

Fred leaned back and stretched, peering over his hand at his hand. Jai had talked him into a game of poker and Mike hadn't stopped trying to look at his cards since. Naomi snickered whenever either Fred or Mike would hit each other and, Fred had noticed, she discreetly checked Mike's hand every once in a while. Somewhat unexpectedly, the deck of the _Commonwealth _creaked and the viewscreen at the other end of the room snapped on.

So they had returned to normal space.

Fred stretched again, trying to avoid the claustrophobic-feeling caused by being stuck on a ship. There was nothing to do, no way they could help...it was sickening. Without really paying attention, Fred snapped a hand up and hit Mike on the cheek as he tried to look at his hand yet again. Fred had only seen "action" once since his first mission, and that was merely packing up weapons left from a sloppy black market venture.

Doctor Halsey's voice came over the intercom calling John to the bridge. John turned to Sam and gave him an order before leaving.

"You heard the Petty Officer. Dog those cards. Get into uniform, soldier!" Mike jumped to attention as though Chief Mendez was giving the order. Everyone quickly got into uniform and stowed whatever time-passer they had come up with and got into a tighter group, ready to jump to action.

Fred waited with the others until he heard the com crackle.

"_Sam_," John said. "_Muster the squad in Bay Alpha. I want that pelican loaded and ready for drop in fifteen minutes._" He heard Sam reply,

"We'll have it done in ten. Faster if those Longsword interceptor pilots get out of our way." Sam turned to the squad. "Come on, SPARTANs!" He said, "We need that Pelican loaded five minutes ago!" The SPARTANs scrambled to the Pelican bay and began loading it. Just before they finished, Fred heard an alarm.

"_All crew, strap on respirator packs! Venting in 30."_

Then there was more waiting. Constant waiting.

Finally, Fred felt the ship turn and head back toward Chi Ceti 4. John and Doctor Halsey quickly appeared out of the ship elevator and mustered everyone into the Pelican. As the _Commonwealth_ flew past the planet, the Pelican dropped out of its bay and turned on a heading for a facility. When they got there, they were ushered into an elevator.

More waiting.

Finally, they were put into a room where they watched videos and demonstrations of a new armor type. Armor built specifically for them. John was the first to be allowed into the armor, but quickly each SPARTAN was inside a suit and training with their new abilities. The speed and reflexes took Fred off guard-he almost lost his balance twice-before he more or less got the hang of them. Soon, the SPARTANs were working in almost perfect unison.

John, Kelly, and Sam spoke with Halsey about the armor for a moment before the report came from Captain Wallace aboard the _Commonwealth_. Then they were loaded onto a Pelican and were flying back into orbit, chasing a frigate.

Eventually, Sam indicated Fred, Isaac, and Li and they moved out of the hatch to remove the Pelican's missile pods. They entered and passed around the explosives, then donned thruster packs as per John's orders. John jumped first igniting his thruster pack and flying away. The SPARTANs quickly followed their team leader. Fred jumped ang ignited his pack, hitting the restraints as the sudden acceleration took its toll on his once-motionless body. As he made course corrections aiming him at the Covenant ship, he heard John request missiles from the _Commonwealth_. He saw explosions as the ship's point-defense systems took out the missiles, exploding them mid-flight.

Everything was oddly silent.

Fred saw the ship start to speed away and corrected his course yet again. He realized he was angled too far down too late to be able to fix it. Fred gritted his teeth and reached his hands out, searching for a grip.

A meter above the ship, Fred collided with the ship's still-active energy shield and bounced away.

_No!_ Fred yelled internally.

He had been too hasty. He hadn't made it into the ship, and now there was nothing he could do to help. He hoped someone made it in.

Thinking rashly, Fred slid a clip of armor-piercing rounds into his assault rifle and fired at the ship while his thruster pack corrected for the push. He didn't stop shooting until the round was empty. He knew that he was too far away to have possibly hit the ship, but he contemplated loading another magazine. Instead, he turned and angled himself away from the two ships.

He'd have to wait this out. He'd failed.

**_Author's Note: There it is! My kind of rushed version of the new MJOLNIR armor and the SPARTANs first encounter with the Covenant! What did you think? Tell me in a review! Please?_**


End file.
